38 Attorneys General tell studios to stop kid-rated smoking "now"

The attorneys general just sent made VERY strong letters to the studios telling them to get smoking out of youth-rated films.  The letter will curl your hair.

It is especially encouraging that, in this day of divisive hyperpartisanship, the signatories are so bipartisan. Of 25 GOP-affiliated AGs, 13 (52%) signed and of 27 Democratic AGs, 21 (78%) signed.  (The remaining are unaffiliated.)

People should thank the AGs who signed and ask the few that didn't ... including my AG, Kamala Harris ... why they didn't.

May 10, 2012 — BREAKING NEWS

MOVIE STUDIOS SHOULD STOP DEPICTING SMOKING IN YOUTH-RATED MOVIES, SAY ATTORNEYS GENERAL

Washington, DC—In a May 8 letter signed by 38 state and territorial Attorneys General, the National Association of Attorneys General (NAAG) urged 10 movie studios to adopt published policies to eliminate tobacco depictions in youth-rated movies. This effort follows the March 8 U.S. Surgeon General’s Report, Preventing Tobacco Use Among Youth and Young Adults, which states that “[t]he evidence is sufficient to conclude that there is a causal relationship between depictions of smoking in the movies and the initiation of smoking among young people"...
“This is a colossal, preventable tragedy,” reads the May 8 letter. “There are specific, meaningful steps your studio can and should take to reduce this harm substantially.”

These are: adopting published corporate policies that provide for the elimination of tobacco depictions in youth-rated movies; including effective anti-tobacco spots on all future DVDs and Blu-ray videos of films that depict smoking; certifying in the closing credits of all future motion picture releases with tobacco imagery that no payoffs were made in connection with any tobacco depictions and; keeping all future movies free of tobacco brand display, both packaging and promotional collateral.

“A point we made to studios nearly five years ago bears repeating: each time the industry releases another movie that depicts smoking, it does so with the full knowledge of the harm it will bring to children who watch it,” the NAAG letter reads.

Full NAAG press release

AGs' May 8, 2012 letter (PDF) and list of recipient companies. Sample letter is addressed to Rupert Murdoch, CEO, News Corp.