Ban smoking on screen?

Most Canadians think that would be a drag

ALWYNNE GWILT
Globe and Mail

Canadians are finding it hard to get lit up about the idea of a smoking ban in movies and TV shows.

A new Angus-Reid poll of more than 1,000 adult Canadians found that 52 per cent would be against a ban.

It's an issue that has the film industry alight, with Universal Studios and Disney both declaring they will cut smoking from all films that target a youth audience. Two years ago, India declared that its massive Bollywood film industry would also see actors butting out on screen.

But here in Canada, where stringent anti-smoking policies have come into effect in the past few years for offices, bars and shopping malls, viewers don't seem as concerned.

An Angus-Reid research manager said it's likely more out of a respect for freedom of choice than for support of cigarettes.

"I think the smoking numbers in Canada are under 20 per cent so obviously there are some people out there who see the artistic ability to have smoking in films," said Lucas Marshall, senior marketing manager.

Perhaps the most surprising numbers come out of the West, where in British Columbia anti-smoking laws have been in place for years. The province also has one of the lowest smoking rates in the country. Marshall said he thought that resistance to a ban would come more from the East.

"Traditionally Quebec has been the one province in Canada where smoking is more prevalent, but they're not very different as to whether they support the ban," he said. About 40 per cent of Quebeckers would want a ban, the same amount as Ontarians.

A large split that Marshall highlighted was between generations. In the fifties and sixties, scenes of starlets smoking were considered classy. But for those now in the baby-boomer age range of 55-plus, only 39 per cent wouldn't support the ban, while nearly twice as many (70 per cent) people 18 to 34 years old would be against the ban.

In the United States, more research has highlighted the effect of smoking in the movies. A study by the Centers for Disease Control last year found the number of depictions of smoking in movies was about at par with 1950 levels.

That's disheartening to some advocacy groups such as SceneSmoking.org, which are looking to protect children more than any other group, especially after a team from Dartmouth Medical School in New Hampshire found in a 2005 study that "exposure to movie smoking accounts for smoking initiation among over one-third of U.S. adolescents." SceneSmoking.org has asked the Motion Picture Association of America to place a big fat R on films that include smoking.

"It's very simple, very clean," said Kori Titus, the director of policy and communications.

In the U.S., ratings may soon include smoking as a factor as worthy of a strict rating as gore and foul language are, she said, highlighting the decision this year of the industry to start considering it.

But a lack of discussion is what may prompt Canadians to vote against banning cigarettes in movies, said one person with Physicians for a Smoke-Free Canada. And the U.S. rating system would not work this side of the border.

"In the U.S., the ratings are being put on by movie theatres," said Cynthia Callard, the executive director of the group. In Canada, she said, kids under 18 often go to see R-rated movies because the theatres don't regulate it as much.

Nonetheless, Callard added that she's actually quite "heartened" about the fact that 38 per cent of Canadians would be up for a ban when it hasn't even hit the minds of many studios in Hollywood North.

"Movie producers are much more willing to put someone on screen who is smoking but not someone saying 'fuck' because the rules say that swearing is bad but smoking isn't," she said. "[But] I think it's a very important thing to be looking at."