The swirl of smoke, the sultry voice echoing through the theater.  How elegant; how impossibly chic. We were mesmerized by the effortless cool of old-style Hollywood movies.  Now we might think, “Why is that pretty girl sucking on a cancer stick?”

Top-grossing movies released in 2009 depicted 1,935 “smoking incidents,” a drop from 3,967 in comparable films in 2005, according to the findings.  That’s a decrease of nearly 50%.

A group called Smoke Free Movies is calling for any depiction of smoking in a film to garner an R-rating as a way to pressure Hollywood to drop the cigarettes and cigars.  They claim doing so would prevent 60,000 tobacco-related deaths per year.

Do you think giving movies that depict smokers an automatic R-rating is a bit much?  How important is it to protect our kids from smoking?  Wouldn’t good, regular discussions in the household be enough? What do you think?

Lisa

Popularity: 1% [?]