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Die Another Day, James Bond's smoking over six decades
  1. Nick Wilson1,
  2. Anne Tucker2
  1. 1 Department of Public Health, University of Otago, Wellington, New Zealand
  2. 2 Wellington, New Zealand
  1. Correspondence to Prof Nick Wilson, Department of Public Health, University of Otago, PO Box 7343 Wellington South, Wellington 6242, New Zealand; nick.wilson{at}otago.ac.nz

Abstract

We aimed to examine smoking-related content in all 24 James Bond movies in the Eon Productions series from 1962 to 2015. There were favourable downward trends for any smoking by James Bond (p=0.015 for trend), and for tobacco-related spy-gadgetry (p=0.009). Around 20% of Bond's 60 sexual partners smoked in each decade, and most recently in 2012. There were regular mentions of smoking risks to health (starting from 1967) and product placement of branded packs was present in two movies. Overall, the persisting smoking content remains problematic from a public health perspective, especially given the popularity of this movie series.

  • Advertising and Promotion
  • Media
  • Secondhand smoke
  • Surveillance and monitoring

https://doi.org/10.1136/tobaccocontrol-2016-053426

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    Footnotes

    • Contributors NW and AT watched all the movies (including some sections multiple times) and classified smoking-related aspects. NW analysed the data and wrote the first draft of the manuscript. Both authors edited the manuscript.

    • Competing interests None declared.

    • Ethics approval Not relevant as the study is of fictional characters (played by movie actors) in a movie series (James Bond).

    • Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.

    • Data sharing statement An Excel file of the data can be obtained from the authors on request.