Jump to full article: Cleveland (OH) Plain Dealer, 2002-10-30
Author: Sabrina Eaton / Plain Dealer Bureau
Intro: Cigarette smoking in popular teen-oriented films increased by 50 percent after a ban on tobacco product placement in movies in 1998, according to a study released yesterday by a nonprofit watchdog group.
It found that top-grossing PG-13 movies such as "Charlie's Angels" and "The Perfect Storm" contain extensive smoking sequences even though they were made after tobacco companies agreed to stop targeting youths with cigarette ads as part of a legal settlement.
"We suspect the tobacco industry might be paying or pressuring the film industry, and we'd like other organizations, like Congress, to investigate," said Jennifer Thompson, a consumer advo- cate at U.S. Pub lic Interest Re search Group, which wants an "R" rating for films that show tobacco use.
But spokes persons for the nation's top cigarette makers, Philip Morris and R.J. Reynolds, said their companies don't permit use of their products in films and actively discourage youth smoking. . .
"Hollywood is either corrupt or stupid," said Glantz. "Either they are taking hidden money from the tobacco industry and denying it, or they are giving away hundreds of millions of dollars in promotion to the tobacco companies."
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