MPAA Misleads Parents, Press on Tobacco and Movie Ratings, Health Groups Contend

MPAA Misleads Parents, Press on Tobacco and Movie Ratings, Health Groups Contend

SAN FRANCISCO, Dec. 21 /PRNewswire/ -- Two health advocacy programs that track tobacco content in movies today denounced the Motion Picture Association of America for making false statements when attorneys general from 32 states last month called for anti-tobacco spots on DVDs.

The groups allege that MPAA spokeswomen misled the public by saying movie ratings include smoking in its descriptors, which inform parents of objectionable content such as drug use, nudity, profanity and violence. However, research from the two groups shows that, of 433 movies with smoking in the past four years, only one top box-office film included tobacco use in its rating description.

Since 2002, both programs -- Thumbs Up! Thumbs Down!, a joint project of the American Lung Association of Sacramento-Emigrant Trails and Grassroots Solutions, Inc., and Smoke Free Movies of the University of California at San Francisco -- have lobbied the MPAA to keep smoking out of youth-rated G/PG/PG- 13 movies by modernizing the ratings system to rate smoking movies "R."

"It's a proven fact: The more smoking that children and teenagers see on screen, the more likely they'll become smokers," said Kori Titus of Thumbs Up! Thumbs Down! whose Web site, www.scenesmoking.org, provides reviews of current and past movies and a plethora of information and research on the issue of tobacco use in film. "Parents need every possible tool to protect their kids from America's No. 1 killer. Instead, by making these false remarks in news stories, the MPAA is actually steering parents wrong."

The health groups say that current ratings leave parents with no advance warning or control over kids' exposure to on-screen tobacco imagery, which researchers have concluded recruits 390,000 new teen smokers a year in the United States alone.

Among the recent statements, an MPAA spokeswoman was paraphrased in a national Associated Press wire story "that MPAA ratings already indicate whether a movie depicts underage smoking."

However, research from both groups shows that, of at least 12 top box- office movies since 2002 that show children or teenagers using tobacco, only one film's MPAA rating -- that for "Saved!" -- mentions tobacco use. The other 11 do not.

The same MPAA spokeswoman also was paraphrased in a Los Angeles Daily News story that "studios believe the descriptors of why a film receives a particular rating provide parents with ample information on smoking content."

The UCSF-based Smoke Free Movies project reports that a total of 433 Hollywood movies have featured tobacco imagery since Christmas 2001. Thirty- three percent (28 of 86) of G/PG rated movies in this time period included tobacco; 71 percent (213 of 301) of PG-13 movies and 86 percent (192 of 224) of R-rated films featured tobacco use. Of top box-office films, only one -- the PG-13-rated "Saved!" -- revealed the tobacco content in its movie rating description.

"One tobacco mention out of 241 recent youth-rated movies with tobacco means the MPAA's claim to inform parents is 99.6 percent untrue," notes Professor Glantz, who teaches biostatistics on the post-doctoral level.

This year, according to UCSF data, 57 percent of movies with tobacco imagery were rated G, PG or PG-13. Five years ago, only 41 percent of films with tobacco were youth-rated.

Another MPAA spokeswoman told the San Jose Mercury News that "industry statistics show only about half of PG-13 movies over the past two years featured tobacco use." In fact, the overall record of Hollywood's PG-13 releases from 1999-2005 is 75 percent smoking. Since Dec. 24, 2003, there have been 155 PG-13, live-action releases, and 66 percent (or 103) feature tobacco imagery, according to UCSF.

"It's bad enough that studios refuse to tell parents which movies include pro-tobacco images," Titus of Thumbs Up! Thumbs Down! said. "Now the studios want parents to believe that if tobacco isn't mentioned in the rating, it's not in the movie."

For more information and university research on the issue of tobacco use in movies, go to the Thumbs Up! Thumbs Down! Web site, www.scenesmoking.org.

Source: American Lung Association of Sacramento-Emigrant Trails

CONTACT: Gary Zavoral, +1-916-446-9900, or gzavoral@rs-e.com; or
Stanton A. Glantz, Smoke Free Movies, UCSF, +1-415-476-3893, or
glantz@medicine.ucsf.edu

Web site: http://www.scenesmoking.org/

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