Thank You For (Not) Smoking
I hardly pay attention to ratings on movies (I watch Cheaper By The Dozen on TV just about as often as I watch Ocean’s 11) but thought you might be interested in knowing that how much smoking goes on in a movie will affect it’s rating from now on.
“The MPAA film rating system has existed for nearly 40 years as an educational tool for parents to assist them in making decisions about what movies are appropriate for their children,” Glickman said. “It is a system that is designed to evolve alongside modern parental concerns.”In line with that evolution, the MPAA ratings board “will now consider smoking as a factor among many other factors, including violence, sexual situations and language, in the rating of films,” he said.“Clearly, smoking is increasingly an unacceptable behavior in our society,” Glickman said. “There is broad awareness of smoking as a unique public health concern due to nicotine’s highly addictive nature, and no parent wants their child to take up the habit. The appropriate response of the rating system is to give more information to parents on this issue.”
Hmm. I’ve never seen a movie that made me want to smoke. I do think that movies glamourize smoking, but the reality is that it makes your teeth yellow, and makes your hair (and clothes) smell. Yeah, that’s right, I don’t smoke because I’m vain, not because it could give me lung cancer. Ha.
Anyway, thoughts?
