The anti-smoking lobby has been pretty vocal lately about the effect on-screen smoking has on teens. Apparently the thinking is that when kids see movie stars smoke, they want to start smoking themselves. The lobby has even come up with a solution: any movie that contains smoking gets an "R" rating.
The logic behind this is absurd, and also a bit scary. If movies were to get an "R" rating based on the fact that some of the characters smoke, why not slap the rating on movies where characters do other things that are harmful or wrong as well? Go ahead, just throw an "R" on movies in which people lie, drink lots of coffee or eat way too much fried food.
I was exposed to many "PG" and "PG-13" movies that featured smoking when I was a kid. Did Dan Akroyd's constant chain-smoking in Ghostbusters make me want to smoke? Heck no. There was way too much other cool stuff going on in that film for me to even realize that he was smoking. Besides, my parents taught me that smoking is bad (corny I know, but it's true), and that is really the bottom line: parents need to teach their kids what is right and what is wrong, good and harmful, in order for it to really sink in.
Hollywood has been labeled the cause of the moral decay of our society for far too long. Perhaps this highly motivated anti-smoking lobby should explore how influential the cigarette lobby is up on Capitol Hill and elsewhere?
Nah, I'm sure that requires too much work.
1 comment:
It seems the culture these days is to blame others. Our government is so corrupt that they have nurtured this atmosphere of us relying on them to provide us with everything. As a result no one takes responsibility anymore for themselves and their children. Scary stuff.
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