KEY POINTS:
Hollywood films which glamorise smoking are the single greatest health risks to New Zealand kids, says an anti-smoking lobby group.
While the tobacco industry couldn't advertise in New Zealand, it still placed its products in movies, said Sneha Paul, spokeswoman for Action on Smoking and Health (ASH). ASH wants adult ratings for films with smoking scenes, and anti-smoking messages attached to the films' trailers.
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Louweez
I am an ex-smoker and I started when I was 13. I didnt think it looked glamorous, it looked foreign and strange and I had no real emotional connection to it. That was until I was told not to do it, that it was dangerous and bad, and in no uncertain terms was I ever to even try it- even though the most exciting, fun and friendly adults I knew smoked. I hit 3rd form, I wanted to be accepted. Other kids were trying it, so I did. It was peer pressure that got me started. I couldnt afford to go to the movies at that age to be swayed by the 'glamorous' image anyway. I dont think we can blame movies for something that society spent so many years selling to itself as cool. Now its not cool and we want to blame the medium which merely reflects us and our rules. Dont get me wrong, I dont think movies in which characters smoke help. But I believe that more importantly, children learn from the people around them (be it adults or other children) who set the standard and examples for them to follow. How is banning or changing the rating going to help? I believe it will only encourage the notion that even I had as a youth, that dangerous is cool and that we want what we have been told we cant have.
Rob Steele
Instead of these anti smoking lobbies pointing the finger at everything in the world including Hollywood movies they should just take a good hard look around our own neighbourhoods, on our road ways and then see where the problem of children getting the smoking bug comes from. I smoked for over thirty years and now my daughter who for the last fifteen begged me to give up has now started and it is now my turn to try to get her to stop. Ash should use its resources a lot better.
Dean
What a ridiculous statement to make about possible threats that exist in our society to children, it may be true that films are a type of subliminal advertising however what about drugs, gangs, violence in the home, alcohol, motor vehicles, obesity, gambling and air pollution to name but a few. Wake up you smoke free lobbyist and look beyond then end of your but(t)s.
Michelle
Are you serious? I mean come on what will people blame next for kids smoking. As someone who started smoking as a child myself as well as most of my friends parents and family members are more likely to encourage kids to smoke than movies. Anti smoking propaganda is everywhere. Everyone knows the health risks of smoking and its beaten into the heads of kids very early. This probably also contributes to kids smoking as a form of rebellion. It makes me sick that smokers get crucified for smoking (even though I know it is a filthy habit) and drinkers and alcohol companies dont get the same. I live with an alcoholic and can assure you drinking is far more harmful to kids than smoking. But you dont see anyone getting up in arms about people drinking in movies because its socially acceptable. Doesnt that say something about the society we live in!
Stark
If movies that portray smoking as "cool" are, as ASH suggests, so detrimental to our young people, I would be interested to hear what they had to say about movies that portray violence and crime as being "cool".
Jim Challis
The article states that "smoking in films misled teens to associate smoking with benefits like relaxation..." Yet I am puzzled as to how that could be misleading. Certainly the film industry has found many dubious ways to match tobacco with glamour, but any smoker will tell you they're at their most relaxed when sitting down for a cigarette break. The age-old kiwi institution of smoko is a perfect example.
