Big Tobacco Goes to Hollywood

Question of the Month
June 2001

Movies have long been a effective and often overlooked vehicle for tobacco promotion. Actors, such as Sylvester Stallone, have been paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to smoke onscreen. Despite multiple promises by the tobacco industry to end such pay-offs, the smoking rate in movies is higher today than it was ten years ago. This disturbing trend is of direct international concern, with over 2/3 of Hollywood's audience being outside of the U.S.. Your answers will provide valuable information for an international action campaign to be launched later this year.

Question: What role do [U.S.] movies play in promoting smoking to young people in your community/country?

Specifically:

• What [U.S.] movies and actors/actresses are most popular with young people?

• List any and all recent movies in which you remember the main characters smoking. Please identify the actor/actress, and the cigarette brand, if possible.

• Describe the impact of smoking in movies on young people's own smoking habits. If possible, gather quotes from young people themselves (see below for examples). Stories and anecdotes would be particularly useful.

• Have you noticed any tobacco promotions outside or inside movie theatres (e.g. tobacco advertisements before movies; promotional items, such as fans, clocks, posters, for cigarettes etc)?

• Have any U.S. actors or actresses been used to promote cigarettes in your country (e.g. Charlie Sheen, Antonio Banderas)?

• What studies on tobacco & movies, if any, have been conducted in your country?

* "I think that through television, all media...films that show young Americans with cigarettes -- boys, girls, everyone smokes over there. And Senegalese, Africans, have a tendency to copy. They think that whatever is in their country isn't good and what comes from the West is better. One has the tendency to imitate even the bad things."

* "Smoking has become stylish nowadays, particularly among today's young people who smoke because they see it on television. One sees it in American films -- and when they see Americans smoke, they want to smoke too."

For more information, contact:

Essential Action
Global Partnerships for Tobacco Control
P.O. Box 19405 ~ Washington, DC 20036
Tel: +1 202-387-8030 ~ Fax: +1 202-234-5176
Email: [email protected]
http://www.essentialaction.org/tobacco