“Let’s stop promoting tobacco in French films and protect young people!” On the occasion of World No Tobacco Day on May 31, the League Against Cancer publishes this Wednesday the third edition of its study on the presence of tobacco in French films. In order to carry out its survey, the association analyzed 150 films released between 2015 and 2019 and supplemented this work with a survey of young people.
For the League against cancer, the constant is alarming: 90.7% of French films include at least one event, object or speech related to tobacco. “These figures are all the more worrying as they show an over-representation of tobacco in films even though the consumption of films and series has clearly increased since the start of the health crisis, the latter becoming powerful vectors of diverted advertising. for tobacco products, “denounces the League in the preamble.
A banalization of tobacco through films
The study not only determines whether tobacco is present or not, but also looks at how it is represented. Thus, we learn that tobacco is present on average 2.6 minutes on the screen, or the equivalent of 6 advertising spots per film. The study warns about the overall positive representation of tobacco in film productions where smoking is often presented as a rewarding act.
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Also, the League against cancer notes that the ban on smoking in public places is not respected: 21.5% of smoking scenes take place in the office or in a workplace and 16% in a cafe, a restaurant or nightclub.
Likewise, almost a quarter of the main characters are smokers, and in almost 75% of the situations the tobacco-related event occurs in a trivial situation. According to the authors of the study, this over-representation contributes to the trivialization of tobacco-related practices.
From tobacco on the screen to smoking it’s just a step away
A trivialization not without impact. According to an Ipsos survey conducted in January 2021 among 1,500 young people aged 18 to 24 for the purposes of the study, 58% of young people think that the presence of tobacco on the screen can encourage smoking. Also, nearly three quarters of ex-smokers find that these images encourage them to resume smoking, and 60% of regular smokers believe that smoking in movies makes them want to smoke.
Therefore, to whom should we blame this omnipresence of tobacco in French films? More than half of those polled believe that tobacco companies play a role in product placement. An observation shared by the League against cancer, for which tobacco manufacturers see this practice as a way to circumvent the ban on tobacco advertising and promotion provided for by the Evin Law.
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“We must resist facing a formidable tobacco industry which uses its strike force and its pernicious strategies to deploy campaigns as aggressive as they are insidious among the youngest”, criticizes Axel Kahn, the president of the League against cancer. Because the cinema is a powerful incentive tool. The authors of the survey recall that 37% of teenagers’ initiation to smoking is through films.
Alex Kahn continues: “It is imperative to stop this manipulation and expose it to everyone’s eyes, we must continue to denounce the powerful tobacco lobbies who do not hesitate to provide funding to see their products appear on the screen. , more or less directly. Without scruple, they manage to circumvent the law. This is unacceptable. “
To counter this omnipotence of the tobacco industry, the League against cancer calls on the French cinema industry to join its fight “to better protect the younger generations from this scourge, the leading cause of preventable cancer in France . “
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