Anyone who’s seen Thank You For Smoking probably feels like they already know this (”The message Hollywood needs to send out is ‘Smoking Is Cool!’”), but a new report from the American Cancer Institute makes it official: “depictions of smoking in movies is causally related to youth smoking initiation.” Smoking is down to 21% of the adult population, but more than 4,000 kids pick up their first cigarette each day, with a quarter of them becoming heavy smokers. And while there has been talk of cut-downs in cigarette advertising in films, the report claims that specific brands are still visible in about 1/3 of hit movies. Nick Naylor would argue that they’re all puffed by psychopaths and Europeans, but it still seems to be doing the job. We call it…the McLovin effect.
Evan: Fogell, I don’t understand why you we’re smoking cigarettes with those cops.
Fogell: Because I f*ckin’ rule?
That shit gets in kids’ minds, people. [Reuters]
[Photo: Universal Pictures, AMC, Fox Searchlight, IFC Films, Tristar Pictures, Warner Bros., Weinstein Co.]
August 21st, 2008 at 6:00 pm
Um..I’m sixteen and I just want to say “Super Bad” is a made for stoner movie. Its not limited to that crowd but it was made by stoners with that type of humor in mind. So trust me *I grew up in a pot head town* that movie as one of my favorites really has nothing to do with my opinions on cigarette smoking. People over think these things wayyy to much.