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Leaders and elites: portrayals of smoking in popular films

School of Communication, San Diego State University, San Diego, California, USA

Correspondence to:
David M Dozier, PhD
School of Communication, San Diego State University, San Diego, California 92182–4561, USA; ddozier{at}mail.sdsu.edu

ABSTRACT
Objective: To study frequency and traits of characters that smoke in films and to document on-screen consequences of tobacco use.

Design: This study conducted a content analysis of the top 100 grossing films in 2002, with a total global gross of US$12.4 billion.

Outcome measures: Three outcome measures were frequency of smoking incidents, traits of characters who smoke, and consequences of tobacco use.

Results: 6% of characters smoked in 453 incidents, including 3% of children. In 92% of incidences, smoking had no consequences. The most frequent consequence was a verbal reprimand. Although tobacco is a leading cause of preventable deaths globally, only 0.4% of tobacco incidences resulted in death. No deaths were caused by disease. Characters who smoked tended to be major characters playing leadership roles. They tended to be from privileged elites: male, white, and mature.

Conclusions: Films portray characters that smoke as leaders from privileged elites, making smoking more attractive to audience members. Because 99.6% of characters suffer no life threatening consequences from smoking on screen, smokers seem invincible, belying tobacco’s role as a leading cause of preventable deaths.

Keywords: film; media; promotion

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