Tuesday, October 17, 2006

Thank the MEDIA for smoking.

I would be lying if I said I have never touched cigarettes, and I would be a hypocrite if I took this time to preach about the dangers of smoking or damn every smoker to Hell. I will admit that I have been a smoker for a short period of time in my life; however, I was of legal age to purchase these products.

This was brought to my attention more than before after I rented a couple of movies over the weekend. One of which was Thank You for Smoking, a satire about a D.C. lobbyist for Big Tobacco. A pro-smoking movie? Aside from its comedic value, it served no purpose and could possibly do more damage than good. It was a prime example of what the media is promoting to our youth. During the movie, Nick Naylor, the main character, gets a bright idea to up the sales of tobacco products. Here is a clip from a review someone made:

"One of Nick’s early ideas is to encourage Hollywood producers to increase the amount of smoking in their movies. Though smoking does still crop up, as they correctly joke, most smokers on film are [criminals] or psychopaths. They want the Brangelinas and the Catherine Zeta Johannsons of Tinseltown lighting up, not the extras and villains. Anything else doesn’t send the right message that smoking is still cool." (http://no-lj-sandro.livejournal.com/11314.html)


While this could be an issue geared more toward tobacco companies, it still shows how much of an impact movies have on people, especially the youth of our nation. By a simple scene in a movie with the heroes or super-recognizable celebrities celebrating with a cigarette or cigar, it could quite possibly cause children to get the idea that smoking is, in fact, cool, acceptable at any age, and perhaps the cherry on the sundae.

I have already been sitting in my living room and have glanced out the window to find my little brothers, seven and eight years old, “smoking” with short sticks they had broken off the front tree and rehearsing lines from movies they had been watching. My jaw dropped and I could do nothing but shake my head in disbelief. Seven and eight. They have a decade of smoke-free years ahead of them before they could even legally purchase tobacco products! Where are they getting this from??

The only thing worse than practicing the cancer-ridden behavior is actually doing it. I see it so much, it is almost routine. I live across the street from a middle school so I witness the acts on a close to daily basis. Once they cross school boundaries, they reach into their pockets, their purses, or their backpacks. They shake out a cigarette from their half-empty packs, circle around a lighter, and begin to inhale and exhale minutes off of their lives.

I’m sure a couple of major factors are peer pressure and influence from smoking parents. However, there is no doubt in my mind that one of the top factors is the fact that these teenagers have gotten the impression of smoking as being “cool” at some point or another in their lives. Now where would they get a silly idea like that? I’m going to go out on a limb and guess that there was some television show or movie that demonstrated the “cool and popular kids” smoking.

I cannot remember how many years ago this was, but I recall being in Ocean City with my younger cousin Jess. She and I picked up some fake cigarettes at a shop in the Gold Coast Mall. I can clearly remember her and I making up a scenario that we would act out while we were in our hotel room when our parents went out to get lunch. She sat in one bed as I reclined back on the other with an ashtray resting atop the nightstand wedged between the headboards.

Jess: “Okay, my name will be… Sarah. And, and, and… You can be…”
Me: “Uhmm.. Cassie?”
Jess: “Yeah, yeah! Alright, now we’ll pretend that we are in our own apartment and…”

Something incredibly ridiculous followed, I’m sure. My memory begins to get hazy as far as the conversation went, but we certainly spent a good twenty minutes acting out some dramatic scene like on television or a movie as we blew the white powder through the red foiled tip of our make-believe cancer sticks.

That was from when I was younger, but I'd imagine it becomes more common as the years go on. It seems as though bad habits and destructive behavior are beginning at earlier ages as generations pass. In twenty or thirty years, kindergartners will have smoke breaks instead of nap time, at this rate. Good grief!

Posted by Erin at 11:09:00 PM