Comments on: The Hulk: Gratuitous smoking?

By: claudia

claudia — Sat, 14 Jun 2008 01:37:04 +0000

Frankly I am much, much less concerned about images of smoking (no matter how “glamorous”) than I am about dangerous stunts and gratuitous violence.

The ugliness and consequences of smoking are easy to grasp (my kids think it smoking is gross and have seen enough evidence of its harm to be convinced.) Even when I was a little girl - 30 years ago - I never related to the sexy women wielding Virginia Slims, etc. I mean we’ve known for two generations, at least, that smoking kills people!

What’s really glamorous to a couple of school-aged boys is light saber battles, people diving off cliffs, being underwater for great lengths of time, surviving being hit by a truck, getting whacked on the head with a bat (and emerging unscathed)… I could go on. I’d be interested in whether those very unwise actions that are so often portrayed on the silver screen and television are ever implicated in the injury or death of youth.

By: lmsrox

lmsrox — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 20:01:42 +0000

And since when is a bad guy chomping a cigar glamourous?

By: lmsrox

lmsrox — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 19:59:40 +0000

Josephine says “we protect our kids from second hand smoke because we know and believe that it’s harmful. But so is exposing them to glamorous images of smoking”. Exposing anyone to actual secondhand smoke is harmful. Esposing someone to an image of smoke is not. Their choice to smoke is harmful. When you police all forms of media to eradicate even the thought of someone picking up a cigarette will you then move to ban images of consuming alcohol? Obesity? Anger? Suicide? Anything our children may get an idea from.

Parent your children and stop looking for society to childproof the world for you.

By: joeseph

joeseph — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 19:05:52 +0000

ed norton always makes a point to say something bad about smoking, or say that he doesn’t smoke in his movies. i think he might of had something to do with this warning.

By: Common

Common — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 19:04:11 +0000

You think second hand smoke is bad, check out this website for an even bigger heath risk:

http://www.dhmo.org/facts.html

By: Josephine

Josephine — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 18:27:34 +0000

Dan from Uptown, smoking in movies is no different than smoking in advertisements. Advertising works. It gets people to try things. Like smoking. The tobacco industry — and the car industry and pharmaceutical industry and the cereal industry — have been using it for decades. Effectively. Companies also pay to have their products used in movies. The only reason why the tobacco industry doesn’t use product placement in movies now is because they agreed to stop as part of the 1998 tobacco settlement. JM

By: wicked

wicked — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 18:08:21 +0000

Jen has a great point. Yeah, there’s all the parental responsibility blah, blah, blah. Of course, parents who are doing their jobs will talk with their kids about smoking, BUT the fact remains that in a study printed in a respectable health journal found that one-third of the teens in the study were influenced to smoke by the media.

So… why is there smoking in movies? Does it *have* to be there? Can anyone say “product placement”? Marlboro had a special Marlboro truck made for Superman II that Superman tosses around.

I think the responsible parents out there are the ones who are asking these questions.

Don’t just take my word. Read for yourself: http://smokefreemovies.ucsf.edu/problem/bigtobacco.html

By: regularguy

regularguy — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 17:27:16 +0000

What a joke. This lady needs to get over it and find something useful to write about. Movies aren’t the problem, it’s the parents who don’t take responsibility to educate their children.

By: Jen in SE

Jen in SE — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 17:07:55 +0000

I believe in parental responsibility. I take responsibility for my son’s actions (he’s under 5). I also work hard to instill my values in him. I don’t blame the rest of society for my all-too-human parenting. However, even good parents aren’t the only influence in their children’s lives. School, the media, other kids, all have an impact as well. To ignore their impact is ridiculous. If we are marketing something to children, we should make sure it is appropriate for children.

I think the study that Josephine cites about the impact of movies on children’s behavior is interesting and telling.

I am also more interested in the question of why there’s so much smoking in movies. I think its because it is an easy way of conveying something about a character, something about their personality. I wonder how often characters who smoke are portrayed positively or negatively?

I find those questions much more interesting and informative than just accusations about how parents (or schools, or movies) are simply failing all children.

By: mike

mike — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 17:02:26 +0000

When I was a kid, I couldve cared less if Joe Camel himself knocked on my door and offered me a Turkish Gold. Its crazy, does no one remember what it was like to be a teen any more? Have we really forgotten ourselves that much? Im a non smoker, but when I was a kid I tried it, more than once. If I was out with the fellas and someone lit a square, there was a chance I might ask if I could bum one (yeah, I was that guy. Im sure all the smokers know what I mean, haha) But my point being…the LAST thing to have EVER made me want to smoke was a movie/tv show/video game/comic, etc.

Educate them, bc thats all you can do. At a certain point, they’ll be on their own. Give your kids more credit than that, unless you really belive otherwise about your child, but I’m sure that most parents like to think that they’re raising smart children, with the ability to think for themselves…thats the ultimate goal, right?

Im glad to see so many posts here are able to see through the BS…props to you people.