Govt. Report: Movies Really Do Get Teens to Smoke

Aug. 21, 2008— -- WASHINGTON -- A comprehensive report released today from the National Cancer Institute - theleading federal agency on cancer research - provides the government's strongest conclusion to date on the media's powerful and causal effect on tobacco use.

The report, Monograph 19 - The Role of the Media in Promoting and Reducing Tobacco Use, concluded what we in public health have known for many years: depictions ofsmoking in movies and tobacco marketing promote youth smoking.These facts are nonetheless illuminating because they are nowrecognized for the first time as fact by our federal government.

The report provides the ammunition to tobacco control advocatesaround the world who are fighting to keep movies smoke-free. Whilethe entertainment industry has taken positive steps to respond tothe growing international Smoke-Free Movies movement, there isstill some skepticism on the part of many influencers in theentertainment industry as to the magnitude of the effect moviesmoking has on youth smoking initiation.

The fact that the federalgovernment in this report is pointing out a causal link shouldprovide impetus for decision-makers to take the bold step to removesmoking from youth-rated films, once and for all.

The report also lends further credibility to existing mediacampaigns that have been proven to curb youth smoking, such as thefoundation's award-winning truth(R) campaign. In its first twoyears, truth(R) was credited with 22 percent of the decline inyouth smoking, but the annual budget for truth(R) is less than the$36 million our competitors in the tobacco industry spend in just24 hours to market their deadly products to consumers in the U.S.

Obviously, in a rapidly changing digital landscape,understanding the role of media in reducing or promoting tobaccouse is critically important as we continue working to fight thetobacco epidemic. With limited resources, the truth(R) campaign isreaching teens from big cities to rural towns in ways we didn'timagine 10 years ago.

Youth get a dose of truth(R) on socialnetworking sites like MySpace and Facebook, on the road at popularteen concerts throughout the summer and through ads on televisionand in theaters prior to movies.

The foundation applauds the editors of Monograph 19 foranalyzing the impact of media campaigns and strategies in tobaccocontrol, which provides a blueprint for how to use the media tohelp end the tobacco epidemic.

This report begins the importantprocess of better understanding how the power of the mass media isused to influence tobacco use bluding youth, to whom the tobaccoindustry has disproportionately marketed its products.

Despite considerable success over the past decade in tobaccocontrol, tobacco use still accounts for nearly one-third of cancerdeaths worldwide, and tobacco-attributable mortality is predictedto increase in the coming decades if current smoking patternscontinue.

If this trend is to be reversed, an in-depthunderstanding of the media's power for both tobacco control andtobacco promotion must inform the debate and guide the way toeffective policy changes.

The American Legacy Foundation(R) is dedicated to building aworld where young people reject tobacco and anyone can quit.Located in Washington, D.C., the foundation develops programs thataddress the health effects of tobacco use, especially amongvulnerable populations disproportionately affected by the toll oftobacco, through grants, technical assistance and training,partnerships, youth activism, and counter-marketing and grassrootsmarketing campaigns.

The foundation's programs include truth(R), anational youth smoking prevention campaign that has been cited ascontributing to significant declines in youth smoking; EX(R), aninnovative public health program designed to speak to smokers intheir own language and change the way they approach quitting;research initiatives exploring the causes, consequences andapproaches to reducing tobacco use; and a nationally-renownedprogram of outreach to priority populations.

The American LegacyFoundation was created as a result of the November 1998 MasterSettlement Agreement (MSA) reached between attorneys general from46 states, five U.S. territories and the tobacco industry. Visitwww.americanlegacy.org. SOURCE American Legacy Foundation(Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)