Children, it’s a proven fact, are universally stupid. So when they see someone smoking on a DVD, they instantly rush down to the shops for 20 B&H and turn their lungs to tar. All of them.
That’s what the attorneys general of 32 American states think, anyway. They want to slap anti-smoking messages all over DVDs, videos and home entertainment products so that children don’t mimic all that super-cool smoking that goes on in movies.
And once that’s out of the way, the government will only have to worry about all the violence, sex, gore, bad language and frowning that goes on in the majority of movies.
Maryland Attorney General Joseph Curran is leading the charge on
putting anti-smoking warnings on DVDs, after somehow discovering that
10- 14-year-old American youths are 2.6 more likely to smoke if they see
films with lots of smoking in them, compared to youths of the same age
who don’t witness movie smoking. The study also showed, however, that
the kids who started smoking were 3.8 times cooler, more cynical and
generally more grown-up than the non-smoking kids. OK, that last bit was a lie.
Curran and anti-tobacco organisation American Legacy Foundation –
already making a number of anti-smoking public service announcements –
sent a letter to Hollywood’s major studios this weeks, asking them:
"In light of the study, and that the Legacy Foundation is going to make
the PSAs, couldn’t the industry just include a well-prepared PSA, at
our cost, to be shown in the homes?"
Studio
spokespeople are yet to make a comment on the DVD anti-smoking message
proposal. Because they were all too busy using Joseph Curran’s letter
to light their giant cigars. That’s another lie.
It’s thought that
38% of American kids that smoke do so because of what they see in
movies. And this displeases Curran. Not that he wants to stop the
artistic process of moviemaking, though:
"We understand the need for directors and actors to have their artistic
license. We’re just saying it’s a public health issue …
it’s something we can prevent. Why don’t you help us."
All
this anti-smoking warning hoo-ha reminds us of the "Winners Don’t Do Drugs" messages that the American government slapped all over arcade
games when we were younger. At least, that’s what we think the messages
said – frankly we were so mashed off our young minds on the crack that
we can’t really remember. Yeah – lying again.
Read more:
State officials seek anti-smoking message on DVDs – Reuters
[story by Stuart Heritage]