HARRISBURG – Attorney General Linda Kelly has joined 37 states and territories along with the National Association of Attorneys General (NAAG) in urging 10 movie studios to adopt published policies to eliminate tobacco depictions in youth-rated movies.
Kelly and other attorneys general noted that this follows the March 8th release of a report by the U.S. Surgeon General, titled Preventing Tobacco Use Among Youth and Young Adults, which states that “[t]he evidence is sufficient to conclude that there is a causal relationship between depictions of smoking in the movies and the initiation of smoking among young people.”
Attorneys General have been concerned about smoking in movies since at least 1998, when NAAG adopted a resolution calling on the industry to reduce tobacco depictions in feature films. That year, the groundbreaking Master Settlement Agreement (MSA) also addressed one aspect of smoking in movies, prohibiting paid product placements. However, smoking in movies has remained a negative influence on young people.
“This is a colossal, preventable tragedy,” reads the joint letter from Kelly and her colleagues from across the country. “There are specific, meaningful steps your studio can and should take to reduce this harm substantially.”
The steps that movie studios are being asked to take include:
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Adopting published corporate policies that provide for the elimination of tobacco depictions in youth-rated movies
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Including effective anti-tobacco spots on all future DVDs and Blu-ray videos of films that depict smoking
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Certifying in the closing credits of all future motion picture releases with tobacco imagery that no payoffs were made in connection with any tobacco depictions
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And keeping all future movies free of tobacco brand display, both packaging and promotional collateral.
“A point we made to studios nearly five years ago bears repeating: each time the industry releases another movie that depicts smoking, it does so with the full knowledge of the harm it will bring to children who watch it,” the NAAG letter reads.
The letter was signed by attorneys general from Alaska, Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Iowa, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Tennessee, Utah, Vermont, Washington, West Virginia and Wyoming, along with Washington D.C., American Samoa, Guam, Northern Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
The letter was sent to executives at News Corp., Sony, Viacom, CBS Corp., DreamWorks Studios, Lions Gate Entertainment, Relativity Media, Summit Entertainment, the Weinstein Company and 2929 Entertainment.
