The presence of smoking in popular movies available in online streaming platform. A relentless fire still burning

Abstract

Introduction: Smoking is a causative factor for several pulmonary diseases. Although there is a ban on advertising tobacco products after 2010 in EU, there are still ways of public display of smoking, especially in filmmaking.

Aim: The aim of this study was to evaluate the presence of smoking in high visibility films presented in an online streaming platform.

Materials and methods: A list of the top 50 movies available in a popular online streaming platform was published in New York Times in November 2020 and it was used in the study. Five of them were excluded due to fictional content and the remaining 45 were examined. Variables including film release date and referring era, gender of first and supporting actors, smoking place and occasion, number of smoking scenes and the potential actors’ attitude to smoking were measured.

Results: First and supportive actors appeared to smoke in 19 and 32 movies respectively. Era 1940-1980 was related to increased incidence of smoking for both the main (p<0.05) and supporting actors (p<0.01). Movie release date after 2010 was associated with decreased frequency of smoking for both the main (p<0.05) and secondary (p<0.05) characters. First and supportive actors appeared to smoke frequently during conversation in 79% and 81%, respectively, while actors’ attitude during smoking was positive in 52% and negative in only 39%.

Discussion: It appears that smoking habit in the movies follows the public sense through time. Although recently released movies present decreased incidence of smoking, further measures should be taken to eliminate references of tobacco either explicit or implicit in cinematography.