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“Images are powerful, and by featuring highly addictive nicotine products, entertainment platforms and celebrities are acting as unpaid advocates for the tobacco industry, whether they realize it or not, with a huge impact on young audiences across the country,” the statement said Robin Kowal, CEO and President of the Truth Initiative. “Young people are three times more likely to start vaping nicotine themselves when they see images of smoking cigarettes. As rates of youth tobacco use rise, and the youth vaping crisis continues to pose a serious threat to public health, the entertainment industry can play an important role in We must play an important role in changing that to protect our nation’s youth, rather than complicit with the tobacco industry in making a new generation addicted to nicotine.”
Truth Initiative’s new “when you’re streaming” A video showing the abundance of tobacco imagery in popular entertainment can be found at youtube.
The Fifth Annual Truth Initiative “when you’re streaming” Report, “protagonist of tobacco,” demonstrates the breadth and depth of how smoking and vaping nicotine is normalized and glorified in today’s top streaming entertainment. Key findings include:
- Of the 15 most popular streaming shows among 15- to 24-year-olds, 60% include descriptions of tobacco by 2021the numbers continue to remain high compared to last year’s report and are often exposed 25 million young people to tobacco images.Total Instances of Tobacco in Top Streaming Shows An increase from the previous year (425 vs. 390)including Showtime’s “Shameless” — the most offensive network and show of the year — Fox’s “The Simpsons,” FX’s “American Horror Story” and its spinoff “American Horror Story,” and Netflix’s ” Big Mouth” and “On My Block”
- Animated cartoons continue to feature images of tobacco, even those that are youth friendly and popular with young people. In addition to the aforementioned “The Simpsons” and “Big Mouth,” Fox’s “Family Guy” and Adult Swim’s “Rick and Morty” are also heavy smokers on this year’s list. Notably, Fox’s “Bob’s Burgers” removed all tobacco imagery during its latest season, suggesting the shows are likely to take aggressive action.
- Analysis University of ChicagoNORC Discover 47% of the top movies of 2021 Featured tobacco imagery, including at least one PG-rated movie and 16 PG-13-rated movies, an estimated 25 million youth and young adults aged 15-24 were exposed to tobacco imagery in popular movies available on streaming media.It’s hard to compare 2021 movies to 2020 movies due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, but it’s worth noting Top movies in 2021 have 2,381 instances of tobacco – More than double the previous year. Several of the 17 youth films that included tobacco were nominated for major industry awards, such as best picture, including King Richard, Minari and West Side Story.
- 12.8% of Music Videos for 2021 Billboard Top Songs Featured and Viewed Depictions of Tobacco more than 2 billion times On YouTube, led by major recording artists such as Silk Sonic, Farruko, Elle King and Miranda Lambert, and The Weeknd. While the absolute number of tobacco depictions and the percentage of music videos with tobacco imagery have declined compared to 2020, the scale and scope of such imagery is highly problematic. Given the lack of parental controls or age restrictions on platforms like YouTube, as well as the lack of data on the age of individual viewers and frequency of video rewatching, the impact of this form of media cannot be underestimated.
“The proliferation of tobacco imagery in entertainment content is particularly concerning given how often smoking and vaping are portrayed as stress relievers, when we know the opposite is true,” added Koval.years of scientific research suggest that nicotine exacerbates feelings of anxiety and depression while increasing stress, yet many young people see tobacco descriptions and turn to e-cigarettes to cope with stress. As the entertainment industry claims to be concerned about the very real youth mental health crisis facing our country, we encourage content creators and distributors to work with us to address tobacco use on their platforms, especially given the link between nicotine use and tobacco use Established links to mental health. ”
While the report focuses on the medium in 2021, this year’s Academy Award nominees made it clear that the problem persists. Nine of the 10 Best Picture nominees included tobacco imagery, and 28 of this year’s 39 nominees (71.7%) contained tobacco imagery. Seven of the nominated films containing tobacco imagery were rated PG-13 and one PG, including Best Picture nominees Elvis, Fable, Top Gun: Maverick and Woman say”.
With so many streaming options available to young people on-demand across multiple devices at any time, the stakes are high. While some shows and platforms have made strides in reducing or eliminating tobacco, many others continue to portray tobacco despite pledges to the contrary. Netflix, for example, announced in 2019 that it would eliminate tobacco from its teen programming and cut its depiction across the board, but has yet to make its policy public, and continues to include ubiquitous tobacco imagery and “in my neighborhood”.
Looking ahead, the Truth Initiative is calling on the entertainment industry, states and public health to adopt a comprehensive set of policies to curb on-screen depictions of tobacco, including:
- Develop transparent anti-tobacco policies that do not support the normalization of tobacco and are open to the public, and ensure that content creators are aware of these policies so they can better understand why using tobacco to create popular personas has huge adverse effects, and why distributors need them in place;
- Expand education and outreach to ensure stakeholders including directors, writers, producers and even parents understand the importance of keeping tobacco out of programming;
- Inform actors of their rights when using tobacco on screen, as actors rejecting smoking and vaping nicotine on screen will be a powerful statement on the dangers of tobacco use;
- Continue to use highly successful anti-tobacco and anti-vaping messages before and after programs featuring tobacco imagery, with concrete messages showing the harmful effects of increasingly popular vaping products;
- Implement a robust rating system to ensure that films involving smoking are listed as TV-MA or R, which has the potential to reduce exposure of young people to tobacco and provide more clarity and information to parents;
- Certify that the tobacco industry will not pay any production in exchange for including depictions of smoking or vaping in programming, and reject website advertisements for tobacco brands or tobacco companies; and
- States have ensured that content with depictions of tobacco is not eligible for local production subsidies, such as tax breaks and other incentives, and the production subsidy policy has been changed to provide taxes and other incentives only to those works that do not promote tobacco use.
read full report and entertainment industry advice list, as well as research methodology, visit truthinitiative.org.
Many stakeholders may not be aware of the harmful and potentially fatal effects that tobacco components can have on adolescents and young adults. The Truth Initiative’s longstanding Smoke-Free Screens Coalition works with local community agencies and state and national partners to eliminate on-screen tobacco product use and help educate creatives in the entertainment industry.To learn more and get involved, visit truthinitiative.org/tobacco-starring-role.
The Truth Initiative offers support and resources designed for young people to help them quit vaping through its award-winning, nationally recognized lifesaving program the truth® Activity.More than 540,000 young people have signed up for This is Quitting – a free, anonymous text-based smoking cessation program for people from the truth. A randomized clinical trial found that 18-24 year olds who used This is Quitting were nearly 40% more likely to quit smoking compared to a control group.Teens and Young Adults Can Text “DITCHVAPE” to 88709 Get help quitting smoking now. BecomeAnEX.org provides free resources for parents of young people who vape.
the truth Free, comprehensive digital courses are also available, E-cigarettes: Know the truth, which educates students about the health risks of vaping and the help they need to quit.Parents and educators can learn more about the curriculum at truthinitiative.org/courses. Young people can access free resources truth web.
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