Quit Doc Research and Education Foundation announces 2012 Smokiest Films of the Year

PALM CITY - In conjunction with the annual Academy Awards, The SmokeScreeners have issued their annual "Phlegmmy Awards:" the list of the ten films with most tobacco use as rated by students, parents, and educators. The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey tops this year's list as the Worst Movie of 2012.

"The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey" is a PG-13 rated fantasy film that showed several of the film's stars smoking in 20 different scenes," said Dr. Barry Hummel, a pediatrician and youth tobacco prevention advocate. "The film is based on one of the world's most-beloved children's books. On the basis of its PG-13 rating, the film drew large numbers of families to the theater. Given all we know about the impact of scenes of movie smoking on the initiation of youth tobacco use, such scenes are unnecessary in a fantasy film such as this."

Dr. Hummel also pointed out the importance of such tobacco use in movies. "The Hobbit has sold over $298 million in tickets in the United States alone. If we assume the average ticket price is $8, then over 37 million Americans have seen the movie. That means the 20 smoking incidents in The Hobbit have provided 740 million tobacco impressions…not bad marketing for an industry that has few remaining advertising options. This use of tobacco by movie characters in a fantasy setting continues to glamorize... and normalize... tobacco use, especially among our youth."

The SmokeScreeners program was developed by Dr. Hummel as a way of highlighting the problem of tobacco use in films marketed to children and teenagers.

"Even if you exclude product placement, smoking by actors in movies is a form of subliminal advertising for the tobacco industry," said Dr. Hummel. "The sad reality is that between one-third to one-half of all teenagers who smoke say that they lit their first cigarettes because it looked cool in a movie. Here, we also have a movie glorifying pipe smoking, an interesting choice given the increase in hookah smoking among high school students in the United States."

The entire Top Ten Phlegmmy Awards List for 2012 includes:

1: The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (PG-13)

2: Skyfall (PG-13)

3: Lincoln (PG-13)

4: Men in Black III (PG-13)

5: Taken 2 (PG-13)

6: Dark Shadows (PG-13)

7: Les Misérables (PG-13)

8: Red Tails (PG-13)

9: Think Like a Man (PG-13)

10: Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance (PG-13)

The films are rated using a standardized score sheet which takes into account the importance of the cast members seen smoking, the amount of smoking, the location of the smoking, and the perceived message of the smoking scenes. The worst ten films are then selected using a formula that takes into account the film's smoking score, the MPAA rating, and film's ticket sales.
