Which theories seemed to best relate to your popular culture topic?
I was very surprised to learn that all of theories covered in this class could be applied to my topic “The depiction of smoking in current films and on TV”. First analysis started by the popular belief and myth that smoking was ‘cool’, socially accepted, and smoking in public places was allowed. Cultural icons in the past, such as Audrey Hepburn and Marlene Dietrich, promoted smoking as cool, sexy, and glamorous, while Humphrey Bogart, James Dean, and Ronald Regan were portraying smoking as cool and mysterious, and that it gave you that ‘bad boy’ image.
In the 90s, smoking was portrayed as a social ritual where cool and young people would get together, drink, smoke, and have the best time of their lives. Stereotypes, such as only ‘cool people smoke’ or the phrase ‘You’ve come a long way, baby’, targeted and appealed to young male and female consumers, portraying smoking as an act of freedom, independence, and empowerment. With a new generation of smokers, new icons were needed to keep smoking cool and exciting.
Feature films have become marketing opportunities for tobacco companies. “A recent study found that smoking occurred in feature films much more frequently than in real life; studies have also shown a link between smoking in films and increased smoking by kids” (as cited in Devereaux, n.d.). Once again, stars and celebrities, as a McClane in the movie ‘Die Hard,’ were promoting smoking as cool and attractive. The main character, a movie hero and celebrity, “whether captured on the big screen or caught by the paparazzi, it seems like celebrities who smoke have a big impact on smoking habits of others” (Stanley, 2011).
As one can see, the tobacco industry used any way possible to promote smoking as cool and popular in order to get new customers and keep old ones. The formula used was the same one used in the past: make smoking look as cool as possible, and use any way possible to achieve that. As I said before, any theory that we learned so far could be applied to any popular culture topic, not just to “The depiction of smoking in current films and on TV”.
What were the most interesting findings from your analyses?
The most interesting finding from the analysis was the impact that tobacco advertisements, especially smoking depiction in movies, had to do with the smoking popularity in America. It is unbelievable what huge influence movies made on young people. I was shocked to learn that young people started smoking because they saw their favorite celebrity (movie star) smoking on the big screen. I learned that “in 1998 the Master Settlement Agreement between the states’ attorneys general and the five largest American tobacco companies prohibited the industry from tobacco product placements in the entertainment media” (Berlyne, 2011). I was pleasantly surprised to learn that movie companies are taking steps to reduce tobacco use in the movies.
How will you think of your popular culture topic differently based on your analysis?
To be honest, I never thought about smoking on TV or movies as a promotional campaign for the tobacco industry. I always thought that it was a part of the movie just because, at one point, smoking was allowed. So all those scenes that depicted smoking were like watching real life going on. After doing research on the topic and reading about the study done by Dartmouth University where the researchers found out that young people “are three times more likely to begin smoking after viewing movies that include smoking content” (as cited in Brown, n.d.), I realized that movies were a huge advertising campaign for the tobacco industry. I am going to take a closer look on what kinds of movies my kids are watching now.
References:
Berlyne, D. (2011). Smoking in Movies and Television: Research Highlights. Retrieved November 4, 2011 from http://www.rwjf.org/files/research/72052.smoking.movies.tv.041211.pdf
Devereaux, D. (n.d). Deadly Persuasion: The Advertising of Alcohol & Tobacco. Retrieved November 4, 2011 from http://www.mediaed.org/assets/products/202/studyguide_202.pdf
Stanley, G. (2011). Smoking Celebrities; The Influence of Celebs Smoking in Film. Retrieved November 4, 2011 from http://www.hellohaveyouheard.com/blog/bid/31373/Smoking-Celebrities-The-Influence-of-Celebs-Smoking-in-Film
