Are glamorous depictions of smoking in movies and ads counteracting the pariah effect?
The rate of smoking has gone way down. It’s about 20 percent now. Why hasn’t the rate of smoking in movies gone down? There are different theories for that. One theory is that the tobacco industry has very cleverly manipulated the people in the movies or the writers. They deny that. The second theory is that certain very prominent movie stars themselves smoke, so they insist smoking be written into their roles. The third one is that it’s writer’s freedom. If the character is unsavory, they may have them smoke to show that. Or it’s a wonderful prop. Are we exporting the problem to Eastern Europe and Asia? It’s not uncommon to find male smoking rates in Asia at 60 to 70 percent and for men in the former Iron Curtain [countries] at 40 to 50 percent. In many of those countries doctors have high smoking rates. In the United States it’s 1 percent. The tobacco industry in this country is fighting a rear-guard action. But they see all these overseas markets, and that’s where the future profits
