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The movies the UN doesn’t want your kids to see

The World Health Organisation, the United Nations’ international health arm, has warned that cigarette companies are using Hollywood to advertise smoking to younger generations.

In a new report called Smoke-Free Movies, the WHO moved to have films that glamourise smoking carry an adult rating, arguing that 44 per cent of all Hollywood films rated appropriate for young people in 2014 featured smoking.

In light of harsher advertising laws and the introduction of plain packaging in countries such as Australia, the WHO believes Big Tobacco is turning to the film industry to infiltrate the minds of vulnerable young people.

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If that ploy sounds familiar, you probably remember it from the plot of the 2005 film Thank You For Smoking, in which Aaron Eckhart plays a ruthless Big Tobacco lobbyist tasked with spinning even the most heartbreaking child cancer story into good PR for cigarette companies.

Aaron Eckhart plays a Tobacco spin king in Thank You For Smoking.

Aaron Eckhart plays a Big Tobacco spin king in Thank You For Smoking.

Dr Sarah White, director of Quit Victoria, said classifications are an effective way of cutting smoking rates, especially for those trying to quit.

“We have good evidence to argue that glamourising smoking in movies can really make kids take it up,” she said.

“And those trying to cut down are most susceptible in the first three weeks of quitting, when the nicotine is still in their system.”

In its report, the WHO recommended filmmakers be made to declare they have not accepted money from tobacco companies in a film’s credits, not feature any tobacco branding in films, and implement a classification system that takes smoking into account.

The report suggested a sworn affidavit be required to prove the absence of any payoffs.

Dr White said classifications would be preferable to a legal ban on smoking in movies.

“If we make it a classification issue we take it out of the hands of tobacco companies and put it in the hands of the film industry.”

She cited Bollywood as an example of why legal bans on smoking in films don’t work: the Indian film industry had its ban overturned in 2009 due to freedom of speech and right to creative expression issues.

Nevertheless, it is true that the tobacco industry has a history of using films and actors to spread its message.

Stallone was paid a massive sum to light up in movies.

Stallone was paid a massive sum to light up in movies.

Research by the University of California in 2008 revealed actors such as Clark Gable, Spencer Tracy and John Wayne each pocketed $200,000 in today’s dollars per year to promote smoking.

And despite tobacco companies denying they have paid films to feature their cigarettes, organisation Tobacco in Australia found evidence Lark cigarettes paid $350,000 for its brand of cigarette to appear in the James Bond film License to Kill, while Sylvester Stallone was paid $500,000 to use Brown and Williamson cigarettes in five of his films.

The WHO has been calling for a smoking classification since 2009, while in 2015 Disney CEO Bob Iger announced a ban on smoking in Disney films, unless historically pertinent.

Australia has some of the harshest smoking laws in the world, with mandatory plain packaging introduced in 2012. Tasmania plans to ban anyone under the age of 25 from lighting up – a world first.

Dr White said convincing filmmakers to remove smoking from their films could act similarly to Australia’s no-smoking areas.

“People tell us the hardest thing about quitting is seeing, hearing or smelling someone light up.”

According to Dr White, watching a film without smokers in it could be the same as sitting in a no-smoking restaurant: less tempting.

Up in smoke: Recent films that would require a new classification

The Revenant (seven actors smoking)

0202cigs-The-Revenant

The Big Short (11 actors smoking)

0202cigs-Big-Short

Trainwreck (four actors smoking)

0202cigs-Train

Dirty Grandpa (six actors smoking)

0202cigs-Dirty

Source: SceneSmoking.org

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