Web Site Is Launched Putting On-Screen Smoking In Its True Light


SceneSmoking.org Exposes Dangers of Tobacco Use in Movies, Calls for Smoking
to Be Included in MPAA Ratings

SACRAMENTO, Calif., Dec. 13 /PRNewswire/ -- A new Web site loaded with
information about the dangers of tobacco use on and off movie screens
debuts today (Monday, Dec. 13) as the American Lung Association of
Sacramento-Emigrant Trails launches http://www.SceneSmoking.org.
In the 1990s, the Sacramento organization pioneered research into
tobacco's deep-rooted hold on Hollywood, launching a lobbying effort to
reverse Hollywood's reliance on tobacco as props. This includes Thumbs Up!
Thumbs Down!, which has mobilized youth volunteers to review movies for their
tobacco content.
The new Web site expands this concept with real-time movie reviews and by
giving parents, teachers, advocates and youth a valuable and easily accessible
resource on tobacco content in movies. The overall goal is to communicate the
effect of on-screen tobacco usage on youth, and how parents and others can
change this trend. This includes lobbying the MPAA to have tobacco use
included in the movie ratings.
The site also includes the Web's only counter to update the estimated
number of youths who become addicted to tobacco because of what they see in
movies. The counter is based on multiple studies among them a Dartmouth
College study proving that tobacco use in movies triples the odds that young
audience members will try smoking.

The http://www.SceneSmoking.org site also features:
-- Reviews of movies based on their portrayal of tobacco, with
reader-friendly graphics that quickly tell visitors a movie's tobacco content.
Youth-written reviews of top movies from young people across the United
States.
-- "Scene and Heard," featuring quotes from various celebrities about
tobacco use in entertainment.
-- The results of ongoing polls on attitudes about tobacco use and the
portrayal of it in movies.

"We have amassed a wealth of information that kids, parents, educators and
advocates can use to learn the facts about tobacco depictions in movies," said
Kori Titus, director of Thumbs Up! Thumbs Down! "They can find out how it gets
there and understand the disastrous effect on youth. More importantly, we
share ideas on how to get tobacco depictions out of movies aimed at children.
This Web site packages all that information and experience, then delivers it
straight to the people who need it most."
In addition, the site has in-depth information for educators about tobacco
in film. The materials help teachers show students how movies influence their
attitude toward smoking. Then it explains how to counter that influence with
media literacy -- and how drastically those images of smoking as "cool" depart
from the reality of tobacco as deadly and debilitating.

The site can also connect visitors to recent studies and statistics on
tobacco and research about the history of Big Tobacco's influence in movies
and media.
For more on the American Lung Association of Sacramento-Emigrant Trails,
visit http://www.saclung.org.


SOURCE SceneSmoking.com
Web Site: http://www.SceneSmoking.com