Hollywood’s rating system hit with a class action lawsuit for smoking related deaths.
Smoking is bad. Based on all of the Truth commercials I have seen in the past decade, I know that smoking causes cancer, bad breath, and apparently makes me into a loner loser (but that doesn’t stop my uncle Jerry). But, outside of all those smoking PSA commercials I see every time I try to watch MTV’s Teen Mom, there’s a big issue with smoking on TV and movies. In fact, according to a new lawsuit, Hollywood could change forever thanks to smoking.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, the Motion picture Association of America as well as its studio members and the National Association of Theatre Owners were hit with a class action lawsuit that if accepted by the judge would “greatly expand the legal responsibilities of the filmmaking industry.”
Hollywood has known that tobacco imagery in films rated “G,” “PG,” and “PG-13,” is one of the major causes of children becoming addicted to nicotine.
The lawsuit argues that since at least 2003, Hollywood has illustrated smoking in rated G, PG and PG-13 movies, which promotes children to become addicted to nicotine.
The lawsuit points out that since at least 2003, Hollywood has known that tobacco imagery in films rated “G,” “PG,” and “PG-13,” is one of the major causes of children becoming addicted to nicotine. Disney, Paramount, Sony, Fox, Universal and Warner Bros. are said to have been given recommendations from health experts at leading universities throughout the country as well as the American Lung Association, the American Heart Association and the American Public Health Association, and yet are allegedly continuing to stamp “their seal of approval” on films meant for children that feature tobacco imagery.
The list of movies the lawsuit alleges features smoking include:
- Spectre
- Â Dumb and Dumber To
- Â Transformers: Age of Extinction
- Â X-Men: Days of Future Past
- Â The Amazing Spider Man 2
- The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug
- Â Iron Man 3
- Â Men in Black 3
- Â The Woman in Black
According to the lawsuit, “From 2003 when the defendants were notified that exposure to tobacco imagery in films causes children and adolescents to smoke, through 2015, youth-rated movies recruited approximately 4.6 million adolescents in the United States to smoke, of which approximately 1.5 million are expected to die from tobacco-induced diseases in years to come. And, at current rates, if defendants continue their current practice of certifying and rating films with tobacco imagery as suitable and appropriate for children and adolescents under the age of seventeen unaccompanied by a parent or guardian, defendants’ conduct will cause an additional 3.2 million American children alive today to smoke, and one million of those children to die prematurely from tobacco-related diseases including lung cancer, heart disease, stroke and emphysema.”
In addition, the lawsuit calls for an injunction where no movies featuring tobacco imagery can be given a G, PG or PG-13 ratings. Also, the lawsuit demands a declaratory judgement where by the film industry’s ratings practices are found negligent, false and misleading.
