Dimly lit tableaus of softly curling smoke drifting skywards from the cigarettes of alluring individuals have been a fixture of popular movies since the days of classic film. But today, concerns about the effects of scenes that glamorize tobacco use have led anti-tobacco lobbyists to push for the removal of smoking from movies targeted at children.
According to a Sept. 30 article in the New York Times, movie studios have become divided on whether or not to allow smoking scenes in movies that are rated G, PG and PG-13. Universal Studios and its sister studios decided this spring that, "no smoking incidents should appear in any youth-rated film," the article said.
While other companies, such as Time Warner and the Walt Disney Company, have taken steps to discourage smoking in children's films, depictions of smoking remain.
According to Tufts professors and health experts Universal may be on the right side of the issue: They say smoking in children's movies can encourage children to start smoking.
"Research suggests that kids imitate things that they see in media," said Julie Dobrow, director of the Communication and Media Studies program at Tufts. "There's also a certain cool factor ... showing smoking in films or television sort of glamorizes it."
Edith Balbach, director of the Tufts Community Health program, said that smoking in films has adverse effects on individuals even when they are past their childhood years.
"Even for people in [college], if they see a lot of smoking in movies, and they are already smoking, then it encourages them to stick with it," she said.
According to a recent study by the University of California, San Francisco, young adults who saw a high rate of smoking on screen have an 86 percent greater chance of being regular smokers compared to young adults who saw little smoking in movies.
Dobrow believes that reducing smoking in movies would lead to a corresponding reduction in smoking among young people. She said it would provide "an opportunity to see any downward trends of [tobacco] usage among kids of a certain age group."
But not all students believe that removing such scenes will make much of a difference in their behavior. According to freshman Lorie Lin, movies are not the only place where kids are exposed to smoking.
"I don't think it'll result in kids not smoking, if that's their purpose," Lin said. "They will still be exposed to it in other forms."
Dobrow agreed that an individual's decision to start smoking is contingent on a variety of factors, of which media exposure may not be the most important.
"If your parents don't smoke but you see it in a movie, that's not going to be as powerful as if you actually see people who are close to you smoking," she said.
On-screen tobacco use doesn't necessarily have to be a bad influence, Dobrow said.
"Media can be used properly as a very powerful tool to teach children ... [but] a lot of that is incumbent on parents to sort of be there and [be] talking about it with their kids."
Balbach said studios and producers should be more cognizant of the effects their work may have on younger viewers.
They need to question whether "there is any real plot device served by [smoking], or does it have any real function in the movie," she said.
If a depiction of smoking doesn't serve an important plot point, she said, producers should remove it.
"Why would you risk leaving it in there if it made the kid more likely to start smoking?" she said.
As a result of pressure from anti-smoking groups, some studios have begun to take action. In July of 2007, Disney issued a press release asserting that it had made a commitment to Congressman Ed Markey (D-Mass) to end the depiction of smoking in Disney-branded films, and to discourage it in Touchstone and Miramax films as well.
In addition, "Disney will work with theater owners to encourage the exhibition of an anti-smoking [public service announcement] before the exhibition of any such film [that depicts smoking]."
According to Balbach, the movie studios will be joining the television industry in taking proactive steps to remove smoking scenes from their work.
"For the most part, smoking has disappeared from television; it has been gone from TV for years," Balbach said.
But not everyone is pleased with the changes. Lin said removing realistic issues like smoking from entertainment is dangerous, and could teach children an idealized view of the world. According to her, the industry is "trying to create this perfect version of the world that, sadly, we don't have."
Dobrow remains optimistic about the power of the movement against smoking in movies.
"It's good news that people are actually paying attention to this and saying that maybe we do have some sort of role and responsibility in its outcome," she said.
