Smoking is making a comeback in the movies. An increasing number of stars, particularly those popular with adolescents, are lighting up more frequently. Their on screen smoking increases the chances the girls who idolize them will start smoking.
Over 3,100 non-smoking children 12-15 years old were asked to list their two favorite female and male movie stars. All the movies in the study were made in the preceding three years. The number of smoking scenes these stars were in was counted.
The teens were interviewed three years later to determine how many had started smoking. Girls whose favorite stars had smoked in at least two recent movies were nearly twice as likely to start smoking as girls whose favorite stars didn't smoke. For boys, there was no difference. One explanation for the difference is that boys prefer action movies, which have less smoking. The girls like romances and dramas, which contain more smoking scenes.
"Really, smoking in movies is just an effective form of marketing," said John Pierce, PhD, one of the researchers. Tobacco companies claim they don't pay "placement fees" to have their products appear in movies nor do they pay actors to smoke on screen.
The American Journal of Public Health, 7/04.
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