Smoking Added as Criteria for Film Ratings

The glamorizing of smoking will now be considered when a rating is given to feature films, the Motion Picture Association of America announced. The Encino-based association said that a film may receive a higher rating if it depicts a glamorization of smoking or features pervasive smoking outside of an historic or other mitigating context. The association made the move to evolve its rating classification system and because smoking is an increasingly unacceptable behavior in American society, said its Chairman and CEO Dan Glickman. “There is a broad awareness of smoking as a unique public health concern due to nicotine’s highly addictive nature,” Glickman said. “No parent wants their child to take up the habit.” The three areas the ratings board will look at with a film are it the smoking pervasive; is smoking glamorized; and is there an historic or mitigating context. When a film’s rating is affected by the depiction of smoking, that rating will now include phrases such as “glamorized smoking” or “pervasive smoking.”