February 20, 2008
When Movies are a Drag
Considering that most smokers pick up the nasty habit during their impressionable adolescent years, it makes sense to put off exposing the tykes to the temptation until they're old enough to poison themselves. Riding that puff of thought, the State Health Commissioner Richard F. Daines wrote an open letter earlier this month to film makers this week asking them to refrain from including smoking scenes in G, PG, and PG-13 rated movies.
The (Health) Commish also cited a couple of studies showing that such smoking scenes are the most influential force motivating kids to start puffing in the first place. And with cigarette use being the leading preventable cause of death in New York City, about 390,000 of the City's 4.5 million kids will die from it.
Several leading health organizations offer the following advice:
- Rate new smoking movies "R," unless tobacco use in the film clearly reflects its dangers and consequences or is necessary to represent the smoking of a real historical figure.
- Certify no pay-offs by stating in the films' closing credits that no production member received anything of value from anyone in exchange for tobacco depictions.
- Require proven, effective anti-smoking ads to run before any film with tobacco presence, regardless of its MPAA rating.
- Stop identifying tobacco brands and eliminate brand imagery from the background of any movie scene.
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How about having parents teach their dumb kids not to smoke? How about some personal responsibility? Why does EVERYTHING i enjoy as an adult have to be somehow censored so that SOMEONE ELSE'S children aren't affected by it?
Here's a better idea. Since this boils down to what the children see, let's just cut out all of the childrens' eyes. They will not be violent because they won't be able to play video games. They will not smoke or do drugs or drink beer because they won't see anyone else doing it. They'll just be the docile little robots that we seem to want them to be.
i can't believe that parents think that smoking is worse than junior walking around with a loaded full automatic ak47 and a duffle ba bag of ammo.
Leave 'em in G. That's fine. The P in PG/PG-13 STANDS FOR PARENTAL.
...and think how much you save on glasses! That's something parents can get on board with.
Kids pick up smoking habits from their parents, older siblings or friends, not from fictional characters on a screen. Whatever happened to putting responsiblity for children's actions where it belongs, the parents.
we should also just go ahead and make smoke-free versions of offensive films of the past, a la "Be Kind Re-wind". I'm thinking Paper Moon, Annie, 16 Candles, Some Kind of Wonderful...
As soon as i leave work, i'm going to uppercut a toddler.
GOD, STOP IT!!!
STOP IT STOP IT STOP IT!!!
You have no idea, as a card-carrying liberal for lo, these past 30-something years now, how it pains me to say this... but the fascism of the left must stop!!!
I can remember being in high school and being outraged when our priest told the congregation not to see "Terms of Endearment" because of how it treated abortion. And I thought, "They shouldn't be telling people what to put in their films and what not to..." ('Course, he could have said don't see the film because its plotless and overemotional and soppy, but I digress.)
Until we stop being everything our critics say we are not going to be better than them. I say to these people what I've said to the Moral Majority and Rev. Falwell and his ilk: I can raise my kid just fine, thank you, without your help, now please just go away.
Can't wait til tobacco is added to the forbidden-fruit list and we have people buying black-market cigarettes. How long do cigarettes last in the freezer?
smoking in movies is such obvious product placement that any smoking scene brings me right out of the movie. i hate when directors try to be artistic by lingering on the smoke rising from the cigarette. all i can think about is how much $$ they got for that scene. i'd rather see real product placement because at least they don't shoot in slow motion when the actor drinks from a can of soda.
seems like it infringes upon free speech...what will they start limiting next? and i am a non-smoker
Why are they spending $800,000 on ads in newspapers.
Surely they could come up with something better to spend $800,000 on.
While I don't agree with the action, what this boils down to is a bunch of suggestions from the Commissioner. No one is banning anything. No one is infringing upon anyone's free speech. Someone is certainly wasting money.
I'd really, really like to say this is bullshit, I also have to admit that Clint Eastwood (among others) in movies like The Good The Bad and the Ugly totally made me want to smoke - so I did. Maybe I'm just more impressionable, but most of my smoking buddies will light up when they see someone smoking on screen. Lucky for me, I had no trouble quitting.