Tobacco industry using movies to recruit young smokers: Experts

The tobacco industry is using cigarette advertising in shops and PG-rated Hollywood films to deliberately target children, a leading expert claimed today.

Professor Ken Warner warned that point of sale advertising in shops is one method to lure teens to buy tobacco.

He said one third of teenagers who saw more than 150 scenes of smoking in films in cinemas, on video or on television, had tried smoking.

A third of movies rated for adolescents – and one in five children’s movies rated G or PG – showed cigarette brand logos.

Prof Warner claimed the tobacco industry needs 50 Irish kids to start smoking each day to replace smokers who quit or die.

A nationwide ban on ten cigarette packs comes into force tomorrow. The Health Department aims to discourage teens from starting to smoke.

Outgoing Minister for Health Mary Harney aims to build on the success of the 2004 smoking ban in pubs, restaurants and public places.

Prof Warner, who is Dean of Public Health at the University of Michigan is to address the conference: Children, Youth and Tobacco: Causes, Consequences and Action, in Dublin’s Croke Park tomorrow.

The expert claims 8,000 smokers quit every day and a further 5,700 die due to the habit.

OTC research shows that 53% of all Irish smokers started to smoke at or before the age of 15 years.

Despite the introduction of the smoking ban in 2004, Prof Warner warned that Ireland’s smoking problem is not solved.

He said he saw 12 or 13 year-olds smoking in Dublin recently.

“While the smoke-free workplace regulation protects non-smokers, Ireland still hasn’t protected non-smokers entirely, especially children.

“Despite Ireland’s extraordinary efforts, and remarkable achievements, a quarter of Irish adults continue to smoke and the next generation of the Irish - your children – continue to serve as replacement smokers for an industry that knows no shame, but only greed,” Prof Ken Warner concluded.

Research in the US showed that young people are particularly susceptible to marketing practices such as point of sale advertising.

One study demonstrated that 31% of teens who saw more than 150 occurrences of smoking in films in cinemas, on video or on television, had tried smoking compared to only 4% among teens who had seen less than 50 occurrences.

Between 1988 and 1997, 85% of the top 25 box office Hollywood films dramatised the use of tobacco. During the same period, a third of films rated for adolescents – and one in five children’s movies rated G or PG – showed cigarette brand logos.

“Over many years, tobacco companies regularly provided cigarettes, gifts, services or cash in exchange for placement of their products in films,” claimed the Chicago-based expert.

He added: “Companies worked to place their products in specific movies and have them smoked by specific actors.

“Previously secret tobacco industry documents contain correspondence between cigarette makers, actors and studios for the use of certain brands or for the appearance of advertisements, packs, billboards, trucks and other items bearing brands, names and logos.

“Indeed, at the conference one of the speakers will show a letter from Sylvester Stallone confirming an agreement by him to smoke Brown and Williamson products in no less than five films for substantial six-figure fees.”