Two essays in PLoS Medicine delve into the cultural fundamentalist cesspool; the idea that films with smoking scenes should have "adult" ratings applied to them.
Indeed, as should any film with a woman's skirt above the knees.
Christopher Millett from Imperial College, London, UK and colleagues worry that, despite the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control recommendation that films with smoking scenes have adult content rating, very few governments have complied with this advice.
No one listens to the U.N. anyway.
Arguing that exposure to tobacco imagery in movies is a "potent cause of youth experimentation and progression to established smoking," the authors say their primary reason for supporting the film rating recommendation is to create an economic incentive for producers to leave smoking out of movies that are marketed to youths.
Then get rid of all sex and swearing and violence also. Or at least make them all 'adult' films. It can't be this one isolated part of film culture is a gateway to bad habits but nothing else is.
Even more problematic, the authors say, is the fact that "many governments provide generous subsidies to the US film industry to produce youth-rated films that contain smoking and as such indirectly promote youth smoking. Governments should ensure that film subsidy programs are harmonized with public health goals by making films with tobacco imagery ineligible for public subsidies," the authors conclude.
And sex also. And alcohol. And drugs. And sports, etc.
In another essay addressing the same issue, Simon Chapman from the University of Sydney and Matthew Farrelly from RTI International argue against adult ratings for film with smoking scenes, laying out four reasons why they believe this to be ill-advised.
They argue that:
1) the link between exposure to smoking in movies and smoking uptake is vexed by substantial confounding;
2) exposure to smoking scenes is much wider than just films, including internet;
3) adult classification of films is a highly inefficient way of preventing youth exposure to adult-rated content and;
4) film censorship is not the best approach for a public health issue.
The authors say: "We believe that many citizens and politicians who would otherwise give unequivocal support to important tobacco control policies would not wish to be associated with efforts to effectively censor movies other than to prevent commercial product placement by the tobacco industry."