Stop identifying tobacco brands
While most advertising is fleeting, tobacco brands shown on screen are viewed repeatedly on a growing number of media platforms. Their lifetime is measured in decades. Thus, there should be no tobacco brand identification or tobacco brand imagery (such as billboards) in any movie scene. In recent years, under pressure from states’ Attorneys General, US-based tobacco companies have written to Hollywood film studios to protest use of their tobacco trademarks, after the fact, but not pursued any legal remedies for this use of their trademarked material.
The studios, in turn, have publicly stated that they never request permission to use these trademarks. However, a simple, easily-enforced rule would be more effective in eliminating hardto- detect arrangements for global brand exposure in films. A total ban on brand identification on screen would be the most straightforward extension of national restrictions on tobacco branding in all media.
Require strong anti-smoking ads
Classroom and in-theatre experiments show that an anti-tobacco advertisement before a film that includes tobacco imagery helps inoculate both younger and older adolescents against the promotional effects of such imagery in the film. A strong anti-smoking ad (not one produced or influenced by a tobacco company) should run before a film with any tobacco presence and in any distribution channel, regardless of its rating. It should be culturally appropriate and targeted to specific audiences. Such spots are important because, even if tobacco images are cleared from youth-rated films, adolescents may be exposed to adult-rated films through new digital technology.
In the United States, for example, adolescents get around half of their tobacco exposure from R-rated films; the same is likely to be true in other countries. Because all media are converging on digital technology and because it is increasingly likely that adolescents in many countries can also access this technology, effective antitobacco spots can be added to videos and other distribution channels, including cable and satellite, Video On Demand and Internet download after distribution.
The World Lung Foundation web site hosts a series of anti-tobacco ads from various countries (http://www.worldlungfoundation.org/mmr/eng_ index.html) that have been selected for their potential applicability around the world, having been shown to be effective in a number of countries. The American Legacy Foundation’s “truth” campaign spots (http://americanlegacy.org/truthnews. aspx) and television ads developed by the (US) State of California (http://www.tobacco freeca.com/ads_tv.html) have also been demonstrated to be effective in discouraging smoking initiation by youth.
There are significant considerations for governance in this kind of policy intervention. National rules are needed to determine how ads will be developed and selected for use, who will vet and pay for them and how many will be needed to avoid audience fatigue. In addition, rules for distribution and monitoring procedures will be needed. Because this policy may be the least disturbing to the status quo and may provide the film industry an opportunity to demonstrate corporate social responsibility, anti-tobacco ads may be the easiest policy to promote. While research shows that anti-tobacco spots do not lower audience opinion of a given movie, their presence may be inconvenient enough that they may contribute to an eventual reduction in the number of new movies with smoking imagery.
