Saturday, August 28, 2010

Why give movies with smoking in it a rating that is R?

American movie rating standards have always been fairly controversial. There is one more problem in Hollywood to be fought about, as if the fighting between directors, studios and also the MPAA ratings board wasn’t enough while depicted within the 2006 documentary, This Movie is Not Yet Rated. An “R” rating should be given to any movies that have smoking in them if you ask the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention(CDC). This will help protect young teens and kids. Source for this article – Study suggests giving R-rating to films that depict smoking by Personal Money Store.

Not legal for tobacco industries to pay for placement of smoking product

The CDC study indicates that even though tobacco companies were banned in 1998 from being able to pay to place their products in films, there’s nevertheless more smoking in films today than there was at that time. Numerous studies cited by the CDC suggest that kids and young teens do respond to smoking seen in films; they’re more likely to try smoking, versus adolescents who see little of it. Public health officials all seem to express the exact same concern. Health troubles are some of these concerns. The suggestion that there be less smoking in movies happened because of the amount of smoking in G, PG and PG-13 films.

Finding other solutions to stop it all

In addition to the R rating suggestion, other ideas given by the CDC are to air anti-smoking ads onscreen before the start of a film and to specify in film credits that no person or company associated with the movie received financial compensation from the tobacco industry or any associated company. The CDC wasn’t the first group to bring up the idea that smoking needs to make a movie R. The World Health Organization made this suggestion previously. WHO thinks that it is irresponsible to market towards kids by filming smoking scenes.

Smoking costs too much

Smokers need more money to keep up with their habit nowadays. MSN Money explains another fact to add to anti-smoking. Smoking costs are more than just cigarettes as it also involves the price of higher health insurance and dry cleaning your clothes to get the smell out. This means that if you are 40 but quit smoking, you can possibly save in a 401 (k) over $ 250,000. Choosing black lung over a comfortable retirement is enough to send anyone’s budget scrambling for pay day loans and installment loans to fill the gaps. The R-rated scene might really just be purchasing into the expense of smoking.

More on this topic

Center for Disease Control

cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm5932a2.htm

MSN Money

articles.moneycentral.msn.com/Insurance/InsureYourHealth/HighCostOfSmoking.aspx

Time Magazine

wellness.blogs.time.com/2010/08/19/rated-r-for-smoking/

World Health Organization

who.int/tobacco/smoke_free_movies/en/

Fox News report on removing cigarettes from movies

youtube.com/watch?v=FSxwPVUv7vY



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