January 8, 2013

Stanton A. Glantz, PhD

Paramount (Viacom) announces policy on smoking in the movies

Effective January 1, 2013, Paramount announced its new "Smoking and Tobacco Depiction" policy that "recognizes the serious health risks that accompany tobacco use." and is "why Paramount has developed policies to decrease depictions of smoking and tobacco products in the films it produces, particularly youth-rated films."

While it is great that Paramount recognizes the problem, the policy, like those of the 4 other studios that have adopted such policies, contains a huge loophole to "take into account the creative vision of the filmmakers recognizing that there may be situations where a filmmaker believes that the depiction of smoking or tobacco is important to a film."

In other words, Paramount recognizes the problem but is unwilling to use its economic clout with producers and directors to keep smoking out of its youth-rated films."

Paramount did commit itself to DVDs on youth-rated films with smoking "subject to any contractual requirements" and to a certification of no payoffs in films with smoking.

News Corp. (Fox) is the only MPAA member company without a published policy. Important independents, such as Lionsgate, remain without published policies.

Actual benefits of corporate policies in terms of actually reducing youth exposure to onscreen smoking are still in question.

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