Smoking Art

Craig David and Lisa Stansfield Accused to Support Big Tobacco

Three famous British performers have been blamed of supporting the goals of "Big Tobacco" by agreeing to

participate at an Indonesian music festivity financed by one of the country's biggest cigarette companies.
Multi-platinum selling artist Joss Stone should participate at the Java Jazz Festival this week in the billing which also features Craig David and Lisa Stansfield as performers at a three-day festival estimated to be visited by more than 100,000 people in the Indonesian capital, Jakarta.
The event's principal sponsor is Djarum, the country's third largest cigarette company, which similar to some other producers specializes in the manufacture of clove-flavored cigarettes called “kreteks”. All invited British stars should perform on a stage advertising one of Djarum's major brands.
Campaigners called on the artists to not take part in the festival, blaming Indonesia of not being able to eradicate on tobacco advertising and permitting companies to advertise their products and lure new young smokers by means of an affiliation with worldwide stars and diverse cultural events. David, who several weeks ago agreed upon a new deal with Universal records and is planning to start a world tour, declined the statements, stating he promoted healthy lifestyle and was against smoking but legal guidelines against tobacco was an issue for the Indonesian regulators.
Indonesia has the world's greatest smoking rate for men, about 66%. Additionally Indonesian research found a year ago that more than 400,000 children are regular smokers.
The British singers do not have a special agreement with Djarum, which is a component of a conglomerate held by two of Indonesia's wealthiest men and the most notable of some corporate beneficiaries of the three-day festival. But critics claim that the stars are even so promoting the advertising of cigarettes implying strategies long-since prohibited in other places. The Marlboro Man is still advertised on Indonesian billboards hiking mountains while young women in branded clothes are frequently to be observed at corporate events giving out free samples of Marlboro cigarettes. Cigarette sponsorship has been taken away from latest shows by well known American performers. Advertising by Djarum for a Kelly Clarkson concert was removed after strong protests by fans and anti-tobacco organizations while Grammy-winner Alicia Keys required that sponsorship of one of her concerts by another company be eliminated.

Movies with Smoking Scenes Should Have R- rating

Brad Pitt’s personage in Snatch, Mickey O'Neil, possesses all traits of classic Hollywood film. He is fully confident and attacks as a real professional, and as Al Pacino in Scarface, he smokes. It is already proved that children imitate media. The Surgeon General declared that smoking really makes teens smoke. It is prohibited to light up in TV commercials, so why can we smoke in movies?

Actions to prohibit smoking in movies have started several years ago; however no formal policy is currently in place. James Sargent, representative of the Cancer Control Research Program at the Norris Cotton Cancer Center, analyzed the consequences of exposing teenagers to any movie showing smoking scenes. The results demonstrated that after watching such films, children were more likely to pick the habit. There was an evident link between the film industry’s use of smoking scenes in films and the increasing number of youngsters trying as well as regularly smoking. And after another study, Mr. Sargent and his team found all answers – the movie rating.

Film smoking exposure (FSE) was evaluated basing on the monitoring of 530 block busters. Each movie was divided according to the respective ratings fixed by the Motion Picture Association of America as: G/PG, PG-13, and R respectively. Despite the fact that median FSE was higher for PG-13 movies in comparison to that of R-rated films, their relation to smoking was similar. All these results provided scientists with an amazing conclusion – it was the smoking itself that prompted teenagers to smoke, and not the vulgar behavior often associated with adult movies. Thus, Mr. Sargent and his colleagues concluded that allowing R rating for any movie depicting smoking “could significantly decrease adolescent smoking.” He adds that it might even guarantee a 16% drop. So, Mr. Sargent calls on the film industry to undertake similar actions as they did in considering scenes of violence and sex.

A new R rating could decrease smoking among youngsters, but wouldn’t it just delay the eventual affirmation of tobacco use? Such a rating might prevent some things, but it is unable to prevent the inevitable. Mr. Sargent agreed with the above statement; however he added that older teens of 17 years old and higher are more likely to make right choices, than children at 12 or 14, as they have a higher maturity level.

Anti-smoking advocates push for R rating to any movie showing smoking

The rate of smoking scenes in the movies permitted to watch by the minors has not dropped although Hollywood executives promised two years ago to avoid showing smoking scenes in the films.

According to the research completed by the American Medical Alliance scientists, showing famous actors smoking encourages adolescents to try cigarettes or other the tobacco products. Therefore the Alliance urged the Motion Picture Association to give an R rating to any film containing smoking scenes.

Dr. Thomas Jefferson from California Public Health Department cited the results of a study that found out that almost a half of all underage smokers throughout the United States might be linked to seeing smoking in movies.

"Overall, 55 percent of the top films containing smoking scenes showed within the last two years were permitted to teen audience since they have been given a G, PG or PG-13 rating," he declared.

Mathew Dow, the vice chairman of the America Motion Picture Association committee that is responsible for film ratings, cited their own numbers, basing on all the 900 movies that have been rated every year, not only the top films from Davenport's statistics.

According to the Association chairman, they have not given G ratings to any film, containing at least one smoking scene after it made a pledge two years ago.

In general, more than a half of all the films rated during the last three years contained smoking scenes, however 70 percent of such movies were rated as R movies, Dow stated. 21 percent of the films with smoking were given PG-13 rating and the rest 9 percent were given PG, he added.

In conformity with the rating system, G-rated filmed is permitted for viewing for all audiences without age restrictions, whereas a PG rating tells parents that such movie can contain some scenes which are unacceptable to see for their children. PG-13, for instance, signals that the movie contains inappropriate scenes for adolescents under 13.

No minor under 17 should be permitted to watch an R-rated film alone without a parent or tutor.

Sandi Frost, chairwoman of American Medical Alliance cited "X-Men Origins: Wolverine," as the most recent and great example of a film with free smoking advertisement. The box-office success blockbuster was given a PG-13 rating since the movie contains numerous scenes of violence.

"Hundreds of thousands of teenagers have seen the principal character in the film with a cigar between his teeth," Frost claimed. "I'm more than confident that no one would have liked that film any less in case he was not dragging."