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Depiction of Smoking in Movies Remains High: New Research Presented at World Conference on Tobacco OR Health 

Smoking in the movies continues to prompt American youth to start smoking, public health experts said today at the World Conference on Tobacco or Health, taking place in Washington, D.C. this week. Experts from the American Legacy Foundation®, a national public health foundation devoted to prevention and cessation of tobacco use, and Dartmouth Medical School today released a new report finding that American youth continue to be exposed to smoking images in youth-rated films.

This information comes on the heels of the July 7th announcement from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, which cited information from a previous study indicating that after decades of decline, smoking in the movies increased rapidly in the early 1990s and – by the year 2002 -- was back to levels last seen in 1950.

“This news is a wake-up call to public health officials and other leaders,” said American Legacy Foundation® President and CEO, Dr. Cheryl Healton. “We have seen a downward ‘ratings creep,’ in which studios are shifting depictions of smoking into teen-rated films, and research continues to prove the link between young people seeing smoking in movies and starting to smoke.” Teen-rated films are those movies earning G, PG and PG-13 ratings.

The American Legacy Foundation® and Dartmouth Medical School research – titled First Look: Trends in Top Box Office Movie Use, 1996-2004 – shows that despite a significant decline in the number of tobacco depictions in R-rated movies, no such decline was observed within youth-rated movies during the same nine year period.

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