Is smoking cool? Ask the media. Smoking in popular films is back on the rise. For the past ten years the amount of casual smoking depicted in movies has greatly decreased. The Center for Disease Control (CDC) has shown that youth who are heavily exposed to smoking on screen are two to three times more likely to start smoking as young adults than youth who are only lightly exposed, and the Surgeon General concluded in 2012 that watching movies with characters who smoke causes kids to start smoking. Smoking used to be seen as glamorous, classy, or even sexy. Once the media realized that smoking was extremely hazardous and unhealthy, they began to stop showing it on screen. Advertisements for tobacco products decreased, targeting advertisements to youth was banned in 1964, and movies stopped showing the act of smoking as attractive.
The media’s job is to keep up with what is “cool.” For a long time it has been seen as distasteful to show smokers on TV. The characters who were shown smoking went from beautiful women in dresses with pinned up hair who looked like Grace Kelly, to drug addicts with disheveled appearances. Now smoking in movies is back on the rise. After on-screen smoking decreased 95.8% from 2005 through 2010, there has been a drastic increase recently with the incidence of smoking on screen doubling between 2010 and 2012. The portrayal of the characters is becoming more sophisticated again. Smoking has recently been glorified in movies like “Sky Fall” and “The Hobbit.” Unfortunately, these films, which appeal to young people, are influencing them to consider smoking in a positive way.
The media is very powerful in its influence on how people should think, but it can also impact how they behave, sometimes to their detriment. The media has the power to determine a new era, a new habit, or even whether smoking should be considered glamorous or disgusting. Given the tremendous impact on health of smoking, it is worth attempting to influence the film industry to try to get them to quit this new smoking habit.