SMOKING RATES
IN MOVIES
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The
graph shows the number of tobacco events (such as appearance of
smoking or cigarette advertising) per hour of screen time on a
random sample of top-grossing films between 1960 and 2000. After
falling through the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s, it shot up starting
around 1990. Despite the
fact that smoking has dropped substantially in the population as
a whole since 1960, the amount of smoking in the movies exceeds
what existed in 1960. Contrary to popular belief, smoking in
movies does not mirror society. Smoking rates are declining
whereas movies show it to be three times more prevalent than it
is in the general population, leading impressionable young
people to think that everyone smokes.
Source: William Bailey, The
Invisible Drug (Mosaic Publications, 1996), p. 39. Dr. James D.
Sargent not only wanted to quantify on screen-smoking behaviour
but also to examine background smoking. |
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