KEY Research Findings & results

ü    TOTAL TOBACCO CONTAINING MOVIES: 89% of all the movies analyzed contained tobacco scenes. This is significantly higher than the previously reported 76% for movies release from 1990 to 2003.

ü    LEAD CHARACTER SMOKING: The claim of the motion picture producers that tobacco is mostly shown to depict negative characters have been found to be baseless. Around 75.5% of the movies containing tobacco, depicts either the male or the female lead consuming tobacco.

ü    ONLY THE LEAD CHARACTERS SMOKES: In 21.4% of the tobacco containing movies, it is exclusively only the leading characters who smoke and no other character is shown consuming tobacco. Most of the time tobacco has been associated with glamour and style.

ü    NEUTRAL AND NEGATIVE CHARACTERS SHOWN SMOKING: The figures for smoking by negative and neutral characters, both combined comes to 70.4 percent.

ü    PROMOTING GLAMOUR & STYLE: Of all movies showing tobacco 80.6% of movies created a direct association of smoking with glamour and association. This accounts for 71.8% of all movies.

ü    PROMOTING ASSOCIATION WITH STRESS: After glamour, the next commonly shown association is with stress and tension and 62.2% of movies showing tobacco promoted this association. In total 55.5% of all movies promote this myth.

ü    FEMALE CHARACTERS SHOWN SMOKING: There has also been an increased tendency to show female characters smoking and this was 28.6% of all tobacco containing movies and 25.5% of all movies. This is much higher than the actual prevalence of smoking among women in India which has been reported at 2.5% among all sections of the society.[i]

ü    TOBACCO WARNINGS MOCKED AT: In many movies the tobacco warning statements are either specifically or by actions trifled and mocked at. This figure was 30.6% for all tobacco showing movies.

ü    SPECIFIC SCENES/DIALOGUES PROMOTING TOBACCO: Not only is tobacco warnings mocked at, 33.7% movies also have visible actions and dialogues which encourage the use of tobacco.

ü    TOBACCO BRANDS VISIBLE OR REFERRED: The disclaim by motion picture association and producers about a positive relationship with tobacco companies also appears to be totally false as an alarming and record number of 45.9% of all tobacco containing movies had product shots resulting in increased visibility of some specific tobacco brands.

ü    NEGATIVE CONSEQUENCES OF TOBACCO SHOWN: Nil. In not even a single movie tobacco has been shown to have caused any negative consequences, not even cough. The gravest consequence was a verbal statement by a character that smoking is not good and often it was followed by another sequence belittling it or an actual smoking scene. Quite often the leading character is shown with a cigarette in his mouth immediately before or after a heroic action.

ü    HIGHEST BRAND VISIBILITY: Most of the brand visibility is for Indian and international cigarette companies operating in India. The cigars in its generic form are also making entry into Indian cinema. (Generic products like Cigar, cigarette, etc. with no brand visible have not been recorded as product/brand placement.) 

The increased use of tobacco in movies coupled by the soaring level of tobacco brand visibility in the recent movies support the fact that after the ban in India on tobacco advertisements, tobacco companies are using motion pictures as a vehicle of clandestine promotion and advertisement of tobacco products in both generic and branded forms.

 ü    GENERAL PUBLIC PERCEPTION: No loss of any artistic or any other quality of motion picture is anticipated by the general public. The people also in no way feel that if tobacco depiction is restricted from motion pictures, it would affect their decision to watch movies. 96% of the people feel that banning tobacco will not affect the quality of the movies or their decision to watch them.

ü    TOBACCO DEPICTING PROMOTING TOBACCO AMONG YOUTH: A high percentage of people (57% to 63%) believe that showing tobacco can instigate some youngsters to consume tobacco. Another 25% to 59% of the people had varying degree of favourable influence created on them after watching their favourite actors smoke on screen. 59% of the respondents admitted using other articles like pen or pencil akin a cigarette in their hand in emulation of some movie actor.

ü    TOBACCO BRAND RECALL AMONG YOUTH: There was a high degree of brand recall for the tobacco brands shown in motion pictures. Around 33.7% of all respondents were able to recall movies with tobacco brand. This increased to 67% among those having some degree of tobacco influence. These youngsters could recall either the movie or the brand or both in at least one movie, proving that tobacco brand placement in movies and its association with film stars have a high impact and recall value.

ü    DIRECT IMPACT OF SMOKING ACTORS: Among the tobacco user respondents, a high 45 percent admitted lighting a cigarette in the style of a film star and 63% admitted holding a cigarette in film-star style. This shows that a high percentage of smokers/tobacco consumers are influenced in some way by the motion pictures.

The indications are absolutely clear. Exposure to smoking in movies promotes tobacco as a normal behaviour and associates it with style and glamour. It creates sufficient influence on many youngsters so as to arise a desire in them to smoke. Some youngsters who have still not experimented with tobacco still admitted imitating smoking behaviour of the movie characters, thinking it to be fashionable and imitable.