Abstract
The Surgeon General has concluded that there is a causal relationship between depictions of smoking in the movies and the initiation of smoking among young persons (1). The more youths see smoking on screen, the more likely they are to start smoking; youths who are heavily exposed to onscreen smoking imagery are approximately two to three times as likely to begin smoking as are youths who receive less exposure (1,2). A Healthy People 2020 objective is to reduce the proportion of youths exposed to onscreen tobacco marketing in movies and television (Tobacco Use Objective 18.3) (3). To assess the recent extent of tobacco use imagery in youth-rated movies (G, PG, PG-13*), 2010-2016 data from Thumbs Up! Thumbs Down! (TUTD), a project of Breathe California of Sacramento-Emigrant Trails were analyzed and compared with previous reports.† In 2016, 41% of movies that were among the 10 top-grossing movies in any calendar week included tobacco use, compared with 45% in 2010. Among youth-rated movies, 26% included tobacco use in 2016 (including 35% of PG-13 movies) compared with 31% in 2010 (including 43% of PG-13 movies). The steady decline in the number of tobacco incidents in youth-rated movies from 2005-2010 stopped after 2010. The total number of individual occurrences of tobacco use in a movie (tobacco incidents) in top-grossing movies increased 72%, from 1,824 in 2010 to 3,145 in 2016, with an increase of 43% (from 564 to 809) occurring among PG-13 rated movies. Reducing tobacco use in youth-related movies could help prevent the initiation of tobacco use among young persons.
Highlights
The Surgeon General has concluded that there is a causal relationship between depictions of smoking in the movies and the initiation of smoking among young persons [1]
The total number of incidents in G or Parental Guidance Suggested (PG) movies decreased by 87%, whereas the number in PG-13 movies increased 43%, and the number in R-rated movies increased 90%
Tobacco use depictions are uncommon in G and PG films; the 43% increase in the total number of tobacco-use incidents in PG-13 movies, from 564 in 2010 to 809 in 2016, is of particular public health concern because of the established causal relationship between youths’ exposure to smoking in movies and smoking initiation [1]
Summary
To calculate the percentage of movies with tobacco incidents, the number of movies with tobacco incidents was divided by the total number of movies, and the average number of tobacco incidents per movie was calculated for each motion picture company. For each year during 2010–2016, the number of top-grossing movies with tobacco incidents and overall number of tobacco incidents were calculated. In 2016, among 143 top-grossing movies, 59 (41%) had tobacco incidents, compared with 62 (45%) of 137 in 2010; among top-grossing R-rated movies, 35 (67%) of 52 had tobacco incidents in 2016, compared with 35 (71%) of 49 in 2010 (Table 1). From 2010 to 2016, the number of top-grossing movies with tobacco incidents ranged from 58 in 2014 to 76 in 2013 (Table 1). The percentage of top-grossing movies with tobacco incidence decreased during 2010–2016, the total number of tobacco incidents in top-grossing movies increased by 72%, from 1,824 to 3,145 (Table 2). During 2010–2016, the lowest number of tobacco incidents [1,743] occurred in 2015; the highest number since 2010 [3,145] occurred in 2016, representing an 80% increase compared with the previous year
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