Editorial: Youth Rated Films Aren’t Really for Youth by Vanessa

People may not know this, but there are many youth rated films that have tobacco scenes in them. Tobacco should not be shown in youth rated movies; they may not focus on the smoking but the visual would be stuck in their mind, thinking that it is normal to smoke. Tobacco in movies has a big impact on youths. Youth may not pay attention much to the tobacco scenes but they become influenced by it, thinking it is normal to smoke tobacco. The thing about these movies is that they over exaggerate these scenes. They make it seem like smoking a lot is normal.

According to UCSF Center for Tobacco Control Research & Education, “even though the tobacco industry was banned in 1998 from paying to have cigarettes shown in movies, smoking in movies has increased. In fact, just two years after the ban, smoking in youth rated films increased by 50 percent.” Movies are still advertising tobacco without getting paid. The ban hasn’t done much to stop the tobacco scenes from happening. According to the CDC, almost one half (45%) of top-grossing films in the United States between 2002 and 2012 were rated PG-13, making them easily accessible to youth.

“’Film is better than any commercial that has been run on television or in any magazine, because the audience is totally unaware of any sponsor involvement.” This is a quote from the Hollywood Public Relations Firm in 1972. Tobacco industry recruits new smokers by associating its product with fun, excitement, sex, wealth, and power and as a means of the ways to promote the associations has been to encourage smoking in entertainment productions. Tobacco industries rely on youths to stay in business. In 2012, the Surgeon General concluded that there is a casual relationship between depictions of smoking in the movies and smoking initiation among young people. The more movies that youth are watching that has tobacco scenes in them, the more likely they would think that it is normal to smoke a few cigarettes a day. They might even get the message, which the actors were portraying while they were smoking, that it is cool and fun to smoke when it is not.

The 2012 the Surgeon General’s report concluded that an industry wide standard to rate movies with tobacco imagery R, would result in reductions in youth smoking. Rating R movies with tobacco in them would result in fewer smokers, especially youth. They wouldn't be influenced with all of the tobacco scenes that they don't notice going on.