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Smoking in Movies

Brief overview of the topic:

For generations, the tobacco industry has been promoting tobacco through mass media such as newspapers and magazines as well as movies and television. Big tobacco has hired slick marketing firms to represent tobacco industry interests. They provide free cigarettes to actors and encourage professional photographers to take pictures of actors smoking specific brands.^[1]

Even though the industry says it is no longer promoting tobacco in Hollywood, critics have observed that smoking in movies has recently returned to levels not seen since the 1950s. Smoking in movies is also seen more in youth-rated films, thereby increasing teen exposure to smoking and misrepresenting the real world trend of declining tobacco use.^[2]

You can do a school project on smoking in movies as part of subjects such as: English and Literature, Mass Media and Communications, Social Studies, Psychology and Business Studies.

Here are some ideas and questions to investigate for a school project:

• Why does the tobacco industry use movies to promote smoking?
• What are some of the ways Big Tobacco promotes smoking in movies?
• Do a survey: Ask your friends if they have noticed smoking in movies. Did it make a difference to the plot of the movie? Do they think they are influenced by smoking in movies?
• Check out several new DVD releases, or go to the movies and watch for yourself how tobacco is portrayed. Does it really make a difference to the scene if the actor is smoking?
• Organize a letter writing campaign to Canadian film-makers asking them to cut out smoking from their movies.
• Make your own U-tube video that parodies smoking in movies.