Smoking in Films

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Smoking in Films

Your soda and popcorn are empty and the end credits are running on the newest blockbuster to hit theaters. What is on your mind when you leave the movies? Is it the number of times the actors lit up cigarettes during the two-hour flick? While you probably did not consciously notice all the smoke, the fact is that there were teenagers watching the movie that may now take up the habit because of what they saw on the screen. More and more, smoking in movies is being identified as a leading cause of teen smoking. Many filmmakers are using smoking in movies to make actors look more desirable or rebellious. This tactic used by filmmakers is imprinting the wrong image in the minds of impressionable teenagers.

Tobacco use in film and in television is identified as one of the influential causes for teenage smoking (Sargent). Tobacco use in movies and in television is portrayed as fun, exciting, sexy, and rebellious and connected to wealth and power, it reinforces common advertising themes of the tobacco industry. While glamorizing tobacco may not be the intent of the entertainment industry, the result is that such portrayal encourages tobacco use among young people. Studies undertaken found that youth had a higher risk of smoking initiation as their exposure to movie smoking increased. In addition the youth that were exposed the most to movie smoking were at a higher risk (Increasing Evidence). Conversely, when anti-tobacco messages are included in movies or on television, it has just the opposite impact and may discourage young people from starting to smoke (Pechmann). Extensive tobacco use in movies and television suggests that smoking is more common in society then it actually is. When tobacco use is viewed as a s...

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Lowry, Brian. “POLS KICK BIZ IN THE BUTTS.” Daily Variety. Nov. 2005:

O’Keefe, Timothy M. “The Anti-Smoking Commercials: A Study of Television’s Impact

on Behavior.” The Public Opinion Quarterly. 35 1981:242-248

Peechmann, Cornelia, S. Ratneshwar. “The effect of Anismoking and Cigarette Advertising on Young Adolescents’ Perceptions of Peers Who Smoke.” The Journal of Consumer Research. 21 1994:236-251

Sargent, James D. “Dartmouth Researchers Find that Teens are Influenced by Movie Star Smokers.” Dartmouth News. 2001

Sargent, James D. “Dartmouth Researchers Link Movies to Teen Smoking.” Dartmouth News. 2001

Tickle, Jennifer J., James D Sargent, Madeline A Dalton, Michael L Beach, and Todd F Heatherton. “Favourite Movie Starts, their Tobacco Use in Contemporary Movies, and its Association with Adolescent Smoking.” Tob. Control. March 2001; 10:16-22

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