Smoking in the Media Tips
Seeing through the smokescreen
- 70% of G-, PG-, and PG 13-rated films have smoking in them
- According to the American Medical Association, nearly 4,000 teens start smoking every day
- Exposure to pro-tobacco marketing and media more than doubles the odds of initiating tobacco use
- 1/2 of kids who start smoking do so because they saw it in movies
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Advice and Answers
Seeing through the smokescreen.
4,000 teens taking up smoking every day may sound like a lot. But not to Big Tobacco. Their numbers are down, so they’re driving advertisers to create new ways of influencing our kids to smoke. Luckily, science (and the law), is on our side. The health dangers are well advertised and real, but so is our opportunity to teach kids about who is trying to influence them and why.What is it?
As the overall rates of new smokers are declining, cigarette manufacturers have resorted to product place¬ment and print ads to get a new generation hooked on tobacco. Advertising cigarettes on TV is against the law, but you’ll see smoking in a majority of movies aimed at kids. And don’t forget about Joe Camel – he was created to appeal to young smokers. Celebrities are routinely photographed with a butt in their hands, and a cigarette is still a cool accessory for rebels and rock stars.Why it matters
Kids who see a lot of smoking in the movies are almost 3 times more likely than those who don’t see it to start smoking. And more than 50 percent of kids who started smoking did so because they’d seen smoking in the movies.
Kids who watch more TV start smoking at an earlier age. The relationship between TV viewing and age of starting smoking was stronger than that of peer smoking, parental smoking, or gender.
Parent tips for elementary school kids
- Try to keep them away from ads and entertainment with smoking. Tell them that smoking makes people really sick – and smell really bad!
Parent tips for middle school kids
- Deglamorize cigarette smoking in entertainment. talk with your kids about smoking scenes. Ask your kids if they realize that cigarette companies have used product placement to lure them into being future smokers.
- Share smoking facts. Kids think they’re immune and immortal. The death statistics could be eye-opening, even for the “won’t happen to me” age group.
Parent tips for high school kids
- Don’t buy in. Debunk myths about cigarettes and weight management, about “light” cigarettes, and don’t let your kids buy posters of “cool” movie characters or celebrities who are smoking.
- Don’t kid yourself. Young teens are influenced profoundly by celebrity behavior, and they will do whatever it takes to be cool.
why do teens wanna smoke? it messes up yr lungs and youll die early if u do it too much i didnt ever like the idea of smoking but i think they have peer pressure
LOL! The parent can easily keep the kid away from smoking by not letting them have access to ciggarettes.8)
why does that kid smoke
I am 14. I know the media influences me but seriously. Its the concept you always give to your kids: if they jump off a bridge would you do it? The only thing is that with smoking its a 30+ year fall. Most of the time anyway. I mean, OMggGZzzZZz robert pattinson smoKes lyk lets all du itt nowW!! Or.. britTney shaVed her hed, letz all du ittt!! Same logic.
No, just no. Subliminal messages maybe, but again it is the blame celebrities card. Teens are more likely to start smoking if parents or close peers/family do. Not just because some celebrity does. We are stupid and impressionable but this is insulting.
I am personally indifferent to smoking, but will never do it myself. I don't think that it's immoral, degrading, or evil (haha), but, on the same token, I *do* think that it is rather nasty, addicting, and harmful to one's health.
I'm not a psychologist, and I couldn't really tell you my views on whether celebrities smoking is truly impacting the youth. But I will say that I think drugs are far more concerning than cigarettes.
Are both bad for you? Certainly. But one is illegal, my friends (in my state, it's legal for medical use only). This may be a bit of a bombshell of some parents out there, but the source of all of that pot can probably traced back to parents 80% of the time...just saying. Just because one of YOU as a parent doesn't do drugs, that doesn't mean that every single parent out there is an incurable good samaritan that you think you are.
How, exactly, do you determine that people smoke because of the depiction of cigarettes in movies? Do you ask them why they began smoking? What a failure of an article. Common Sense is like the Jack Thompson of the Internet.
Anyways, maybe cigarettes are just natures way to clean out the gene pool? Only retarded people start smoking because of some generic actor smoking on TV.
Well, is your kid in the middle/high school and getting into peer pressure? If so, this is the message that never fails: smoking is unhealthy, and unhealthy is UNCOOL.
And I'm thinking that yes, the kids of yours thinking it's cool to smoke are in high school. I haven't had to tell Jessica about the whole unhealthiness=uncoolness yet, but one of my friends has taught her twin teens (imagine the horror!) about it. It works.