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Does seeing smoking on the TV and in movies cause kids to smoke?
Categories: Media, That's Entertainment
Bob Sassone, at our sister blog TV Squad, linked to a really wry and funny LA Times article by Joel Stein that was about a very serious subject. Harvard Associate Dean Jay Winsten (do you think he feels it is as ironic as I do that his name sounds like the beginning of a tobacco company?) has called for Hollywood to stop depicting smoking in movies that kids have access to. He claims that cigarette-smoking related deaths are CAUSED by kids viewing smoking in the movies and television and lighting up themselves.
Stein asked Winsten whether movies should start depicting people in movies as only eating vegetables and lean proteins as well. Winsten responded with a phrase that always makes my Mommy blood run cold: "We're talking about protecting kids!" I hate that. You can make everything and anything sound like a good decision if you throw that spice on top of it. It's like using hot sauce in every dish you make: Eventually you just kill off all your taste buds. That particular rhetorical argument has just lost all of its power to truly make an impact. It's an empty phrase, just a red herring people use to get what they want. Because how can you argue with protecting children!
Please.
It's my job to protect my children, thank you very much. And guess what? They have seen people smoking in real life too-- that is, until I swatted the cigarettes out of those shameless heathens' mouths and made citizens' arrests because they showed my children a reality that I am opposed to.
Cigarette smoking is a very serious health threat. I am a medical editor. I read about it and write about it ALL. THE. TIME. Teen and youth smoking is also very serious. But honestly? Most of the studies point to peer influences and advertising as what get kids to start smoking, not Hollywood.
In Stein's article, he responds to the Harvard report's admonishment that smoking in movies is "unnecessary and cliched" by saying that everything in movies is unnecessary and cliched. Stein also says, and I think this is the critical point of this issue: "But even if Leonardo DiCaprio's chain smoking in "Blood Diamond" causes kids to try cigarettes, that's the price of liberty. Art is empty propaganda if it just shows the world as we want it to be."
Exactly.
Stein asked Winsten whether movies should start depicting people in movies as only eating vegetables and lean proteins as well. Winsten responded with a phrase that always makes my Mommy blood run cold: "We're talking about protecting kids!" I hate that. You can make everything and anything sound like a good decision if you throw that spice on top of it. It's like using hot sauce in every dish you make: Eventually you just kill off all your taste buds. That particular rhetorical argument has just lost all of its power to truly make an impact. It's an empty phrase, just a red herring people use to get what they want. Because how can you argue with protecting children!
Please.
It's my job to protect my children, thank you very much. And guess what? They have seen people smoking in real life too-- that is, until I swatted the cigarettes out of those shameless heathens' mouths and made citizens' arrests because they showed my children a reality that I am opposed to.
Cigarette smoking is a very serious health threat. I am a medical editor. I read about it and write about it ALL. THE. TIME. Teen and youth smoking is also very serious. But honestly? Most of the studies point to peer influences and advertising as what get kids to start smoking, not Hollywood.
In Stein's article, he responds to the Harvard report's admonishment that smoking in movies is "unnecessary and cliched" by saying that everything in movies is unnecessary and cliched. Stein also says, and I think this is the critical point of this issue: "But even if Leonardo DiCaprio's chain smoking in "Blood Diamond" causes kids to try cigarettes, that's the price of liberty. Art is empty propaganda if it just shows the world as we want it to be."
Exactly.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Dee 4-30-2007 @ 12:54PM
I couldn't agree with you more.
Reply
mp 4-30-2007 @ 2:39PM
Wow! A post from a parent that takes responsibility for what their kids learn instead of pointing a finger!
there's hope for the world yet!
Reply
Davismama2003 4-30-2007 @ 3:03PM
Let's talk parental responsibility here. Should a young child be watching a violent movie like Blood Diamond in the first place?
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Paula 5-01-2007 @ 7:41AM
I don't see where it was said that a young child is watching "Blood Diamond" I think they were just using the example of a popular actor smoking in a movie that teens might watch(with or without parents approval). Sometimes when we say kids it could mean toddlers, preteens, even teens and older teens. As a teenager I saw many, many TV shows, and movies where people smoked or drank and it did not make me want to smoke or drink as a teenager. Children are going to see things all their lives that we would rather they not see on movies and TV it is up to us to help them learn that they really shouldn't do everything they see other people doing. I know that people are influenced by celebrities and such but, I would seriously worry more about whatmy childs friends are encouarging him to do, than what he is watching on television or movies.
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GENE 5-02-2007 @ 12:31PM
"It's my job to protect my children, thank you very much . . . I am a medical editor. I read about it and write about it ALL. THE. TIME."
Well how very, very LUCKY. YOUR. KIDS. ARE. to have at least one parent, with all the time, resources and money to help guide them through the minefields of cigarette advertising ($11 Billion/year at last count) and heavy promotion in the movies.
And what about all the rest of the kids who may have a single parent with all he or she can do to just get food on the table?
Screw 'em if they didn't get it together enough to have well-off, well-educated parents like you. Toss 'em to the tender mercies of the tobacco companies who've targeted them so cynically.
Reply
SKL 5-03-2007 @ 12:41AM
It amazes me that anyone thinks anyone believes anything they see in movies / TV shows. It's all BS. We are getting all excited about smoking - something I frankly see a lot less on TV / movies than while walking down the street - and what about the rampant casual sex, offensive language, extreme disrespect for parents and other authorities, and the totally unrealistic population statistics they depict (e.g., half of the guys are depicted as gay half of the time, and single heterosexuals the other half of the time, half of the Americans are depicted as Jewish, etc.)? Even if it's really true that our kids are dumb enough to believe what they see in the world of make-believe, it's our responsibility to educate them on the reality and on the dangers of unhealthy choices. Like, tobacco is the MOST addictive drug on the market, it's disgusting, it's expensive, it will cause illness and quite possibly death (for you, your associates, and your unborn children), it's illegal for you to use, it's stupid, and I will punish you every time I catch you at it. If parents do all that and their kids still decide to smoke anyway, they will have to live with the consequences.
This kind of parental guidance has nothing to do with whether kids are privileged or have educated parents. It's about parental responsibility and then personal responsibility. We are all capable of it. I certainly didn't grow up privileged but I had enough brains not to be a smoker.
Reply