DVDs cause lung cancer?

Peter J DeCrescenzo · November 18, 2005

FYI: There are efforts being taken to require an anti-smoking warning on all "studio" DVDs which contain movies/TV shows with smoking talent.

AP article via San Francisco Chronicle:

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?.../e160511S51.DTL

All the best,

- Peter DeCrescenzo

Keith Mottram · November 18, 2005

FYI: There are efforts being taken to require an anti-smoking warning on all "studio" DVDs which contain movies/TV shows with smoking talent.

AP article via San Francisco Chronicle:

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?.../e160511S51.DTL

All the best,

- Peter DeCrescenzo

FEAR. Yes that is exactly what we need, lord knows what i might do if i see a film star with a cigarette, hang on just got to flick away this ash, aah that's better... where was I. oh yes surely a priority should be a warning that the film is completely rubbish. sitting through hollywood dross is far more damaging than watching someone smoking. but then this isn't about smoking is it? its about slight of hand- let the plebs get in a tiz about smoking and then they'll have less time to worry about the real dangers at hand. biggest preventable killer? nope that is bad diet or in the states lack of free medical care. or whatever....

Keith

ps you got to love this quote from the article "The industry's leaders are responsible Americans," he said, "and I'm sure they're just as concerned about the health of their children as the doctors are."

Mark Allen · November 18, 2005

Coming from a family where most of my heritage has died of smoking related causes, I would say that one of the only things I'm more convinced about than the truly bad effects of smoking is the inability of the government (or anyone acting to appease them) to convey that message in a spot worth putting on a DVD.

November 18, 2005

Although i tend to go in the other direction of any goverment directed add, good or bad (just my nature)

I have to agree with this attempt. I would go into further detail about why, but i belive Tim doesn't allow for political debates here at Cinematography.com

Brad Grimmett · November 20, 2005

Anyone who doesn't know smoking is bad for them is living in a hole. In my opinion this effort to put warnings on DVD's containing smoking is just politics. There are so many other, more important things that politicians could be worried about, and trying to fix....yet they want to state the obvious over and over again. Sad.

Matt Pacini · November 21, 2005

Much agree with Brad.

My mom died of lung cancer from smoking, so I'm painfully aware of how horrible a death it is, and the need for people to stop smoking, but really, WHO DOESN'T KNOW SMOKING IS BAD FOR YOU?

I have nothing against someone VOLUNTARILY putting warnings on their DVD's, but I do have a problem with it being a law.

If we're going to be "fair", shouldn't we have warnings about how dangerous cars are for you, in films that have people driving?

Or how about warnings about guns, bombs, fire, jumping out of windows, traveling to third world countries, eating poorly.... The list could go on. We could have 60 minutes of warnings to watch every time we went to a movie.

It's all because some politician wants to say "I care about X, and to prove it, I'm going to initiate legislation to...."

This is why we have too many laws, and why we're marching towards a police state with all this stuff.

In Berkely Calif., there is a "leering law" where if some woman thinks you're "leering" at her (I guess women in Berkely are all mind-readers), you can be charged with a crime.

We're not children, we don't need to be protected against everything we can do to harm ourselves.

MP

Robert Hughes · November 27, 2005

Ooh, I like Matt's point. Imagine forcing through legislation warning people that guns harm people on all "studio" DVDs which contain movies/TV shows with gun-toting talent. Wonder what the NRA would say about that?

Bill Totolo · November 28, 2005

Points taken but don't we as filmmakers have to acknowledge the influence of our medium, if just amongst ourselves as a community.

I mean, if it didn't influence people there would be no such things as propagand films.

As adults I think we're all pretty aware of the effects of smoking, I think the anti smoking PSA's are concerned with targeting a youth culture that is easily influenced by peer pressure and images conveyed to them in the media.

Anyone disagree?

Leo Anthony Vale · November 28, 2005

Points taken but don't we as filmmakers have to acknowledge the influence of our medium, if just amongst ourselves as a community.

I mean, if it didn't influence people there would be no such things as propagand films.

As adults I think we're all pretty aware of the effects of smoking, I think the anti smoking PSA's are concerned with targeting a youth culture that is easily influenced by peer pressure and images conveyed to them in the media.

Anyone disagree?

Telling kids smoking is a forbidden fruit will make them want to smoke.

---Lv

Brad Grimmett · November 29, 2005

Like Matt said, if we want to warn people about all the bad things in films on every DVD, then each and every DVD will have to be a double DVD. Just think about all the things to warn people about......drug use, rape, drinking, scuba diving, skydiving, driving, flying, swimming.....these are all things that can kill you, and the list goes on. I'm sure there are thousands of things to warn people of, but do we really need to assume that no one has any common sense?

Maybe a good idea would be to inundate this particular Senator, or whoever is trying to push this law, with suggestions of other things to warn people of. I think they'd get pretty sick of it quickly and give it up. If they had people screaming that everyone should be warned of the dangers of riding an elevator, maybe they would realize how silly this idea is.

Dominik Muench · November 29, 2005

There are so many other, more important things that politicians could be worried about, and trying to fix....yet they want to state the obvious over and over again. Sad.

I have to agree. How about warnings for the use of guns or unnecessary violence ?.......

Bill Totolo · November 29, 2005

Like Matt said, if we want to warn people about all the bad things in films on every DVD, then each and every DVD will have to be a double DVD. Just think about all the things to warn people about......drug use, rape, drinking, scuba diving, skydiving, driving, flying, swimming.....these are all things that can kill you, and the list goes on. I'm sure there are thousands of things to warn people of, but do we really need to assume that no one has any common sense?
Maybe a good idea would be to inundate this particular Senator, or whoever is trying to push this law, with suggestions of other things to warn people of. I think they'd get pretty sick of it quickly and give it up. If they had people screaming that everyone should be warned of the dangers of riding an elevator, maybe they would realize how silly this idea is.

But should we as filmmakers consider more seriously the impact of including these things in our work?

I don't say we should shoot PSA's telling people what not to do but I wonder if we think hard enough about the impact of glamourizing such behaviours as mentioned above. Just a thought not a polemic.

Brad Grimmett · November 30, 2005

But should we as filmmakers consider more seriously the impact of including these things in our work?
I don't say we should shoot PSA's telling people what not to do but I wonder if we think hard enough about the impact of glamourizing such behaviours as mentioned above. Just a thought not a polemic.

Very good point. Unfortunately, I don't have a solution for that.

Robert Hughes · November 30, 2005

People are going to do what they're gonna do. Folks like watching movies of people doing dangerous, sociopathic things because they would do it, too, if they could get away with it. Nobody's forcing me to make slasher flicks; if I didn't agree with the film's point of view, I'd leave and work on something more humane.

Edited November 30, 2005 by Robert Hughes

E.A. Deitrich · December 20, 2005

I actually thought this was a joke at first, but it is typical of the thought police that exists out there today. This makes me want to make movies with characters who smoke. It is so ironic that the more regulations they have on smoking the more kids I see smoking these days.

Smoking is not healthy, neither is having sex with every person you meet. Are they going to put warnings on DVDs that have characters who have one night stands? Or maybe even films that have characters who eat too much fast food.

On that note, i'm going to go smoke a cigarette.

FYI: There are efforts being taken to require an anti-smoking warning on all "studio" DVDs which contain movies/TV shows with smoking talent.

AP article via San Francisco Chronicle:

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?.../e160511S51.DTL

All the best,

- Peter DeCrescenzo

Matt Pacini · December 20, 2005

But should we as filmmakers consider more seriously the impact of including these things in our work?

I agree 100%, but that's quite a different thing that passing laws requiring it, and we're about one inch from goose-stepping Gestapo police-states, because so much of the population fails to recognize the difference.

I'm in total agreement that what we see has some degree of a causative effect. If it didn't, then the entire advertising industry is a huge scam that doesn't work.

The argument; "people are going to do, what they're going to do", doesn't hold water.

If it did, then we should stop wasting our time telling people to use condoms, stop being racist, etc., right?

My point is, I have a problem when the government gets involved in managing every minute aspect of our lives, in effect legislating everything including politeness.

I don't look at the government as a gigantic father figure like some do.

The level we expect from government, is exactly the amount of freedom we have to give up to it. I think we should be responsible for ourselves in matters like this. I have no problem with VOLUNTARILY putting warnings up, but like I said, how many times do you see someone shot in a film, compared to someone smoking in a film?

Probably about 80 to 1 ratio, yet here they are wanting to legislate the showing of smoking.

It's absurd.

MP