X

Seaway Valley Prevention Council in Ogdensburg praising lawsuit that aims to give movies depicting tobacco use an R rating

Posted 2/29/16

OGDENSBURG -- Seaway Valley Prevention Council is praising a lawsuit that aims to give movies depicting tobacco use an R rating. A lawsuit has been filed by Keller-Grover LPP (Northern California) …

This item is available in full to subscribers.

Please log in to continue

Log in

Seaway Valley Prevention Council in Ogdensburg praising lawsuit that aims to give movies depicting tobacco use an R rating

Posted

OGDENSBURG -- Seaway Valley Prevention Council is praising a lawsuit that aims to give movies depicting tobacco use an R rating.

A lawsuit has been filed by Keller-Grover LPP (Northern California) against the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), Disney, Sony, Paramount, Fox, Universal, Warner Bros., and the National Association of Theatre Owners (NATO), for "negligently awarding" youth ratings (G, PG, PG-13) to top-grossing films that contain tobacco use or imagery.

According to Elizabeth Billings of Seaway Valley Prevention Council, the lawsuit accuses film companies and trade groups of "misrepresenting some films as suitable for children and teens despite the fact that the movies contained tobacco use."

The lawsuit is asking for $5 million and to have all future movies with tobacco use rated R.

“These film companies and trade groups rated these films as appropriate for children under the age of 17, despite having been informed that films with tobacco recruit large numbers of American children to use tobacco,” Billings says in the release. “In fact, the Surgeon General has stated that if tobacco imagery were eliminated from youth-rated films, as many as one million tobacco deaths in this generation of children could be prevented.”

According to Billings, the tobacco industry has a long history of using Hollywood, celebrities and the film industry to market its deadly products to youth.

The lawsuit cites that more than half (54 percent) of the 1,100 top-grossing films containing tobacco released in the U.S. since 2003 were rated PG or PG-13.

Reality Check of St. Lawrence, Jefferson, and Lewis Counties has been fighting to have movies containing tobacco use rated R for many years.

“We know that smoking on screen is one of the largest causes of youth initiation of smoking, confirmed by the Surgeon General and the Centers for Disease Control,” Billings said. “Just this past weekend, Reality Check youth hosted a movie stomp in Canton where a free showing of Zoolander 2 (PG-13) was played and the youth encouraged community members to stomp their feet during scenes that contain smoking, signifying a desire to stomp out tobacco imagery in youth rated films.”

Seaway Valley Prevention Council has an office at 206 Ford Street, Suite 301, Ogdensburg.