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Across the Americas, Chile has the highest prevalence of adult and youth smoking (40.6% and 39.2%, respectively).1 ,2 The WHO's Framework Convention on Tobacco Control recommends prohibiting direct and indirect tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship (TAPS), including portrayals of tobacco in films.3 The tobacco industry has long used films to promote its products.3 ,4 Evidence from numerous countries consistently demonstrates that exposure to tobacco use in films promotes youth smoking, which provides the rationale for policy development in this area.3 ,4
In May 2011, Chile introduced legislation to ban smoking in enclosed public spaces. From May 2011 to January 2013, Chilean lawmakers discussed amending this legislation to include a ban of all forms of indirect TAPS. The tobacco and entertainment industries lobbied against this legislation, and the TAPS provisions were weakened when they passed in January 2013. Only partial TAPS restrictions were adopted, which included prohibition of paid tobacco product placement.
The media can influence policy decisions.5 Prior studies have examined how media represent tobacco control policies, particularly smoke-free policies6 …
Footnotes
Contributors RVA and JFT conceived and designed the study. RVA coded media articles and analysed data and wrote the first draft of the manuscript. CLK-C, JFT, MTVS contributed to the writing of the manuscript. RVA CLK-C, MTVS and JT agreed with the manuscript results and conclusions.
Competing interests None.
Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.
Data sharing statement Data set of coded articles available from the corresponding author on request.