Smoking To Go Up In Smoke In Disney Films

Healthy living is the new standard by which many companies are judged these days, so the Walt Disney Company is banning smoking scenes from its movies from now on. That coincides with an announcement in May by the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) that when it rates new movies it’s going to judge whether smoking is too pervasive, just as it judges drug use, nudity, violence, and profanity.

Disney is the first studio to announce such a smoking ban. It also says by next year it plans to have eliminated trans-fats from food sold at its theme parks, it is not renewing a 10-year promotional agreement with McDonalds, and it will only allow its licensed characters to be portrayed on products that that are low in calories, fat, saturated fat and sugar.

It says it will also add anti-smoking announcements to new DVDs issued that contain smoking scenes, and it is going to urge movie theaters to show anti-smoking public service announcements.

The MPAA had  turned down requests by anti-smoking groups  -- and 32 state attorneys general -- to rate any movie that showed smoking as an “R” – no children under 17 unless with a parent or guardian, and because of that ruling it has already run into problems. John Travolta’s new film, Hairspray, contains smoking scenes, but because it takes place in the 1960s when smoking was in vogue the MPAA gave it PG (parental guidance) rating instead of Restricted (R).

So that means any film depicted before the year 2000 can have smoking scenes and films in a time period after 2000 cannot? Come on! - July 27, 2007

Keywords:motion picture ratings

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