Is it so horrible for certain people in society to want to help other people out. Maybe you don’t agree with their methods, and that’s fine, but is it possible that these people who want to ban smoking in movies don’t have an alterior motive – that they are not trying to start a chain reaction and ban everything. Maybe they just genuinely care about kids who don’t have the same parental guidance that we grew up with and this is just one small step that can help.

Would banning smoking in movies have any effect on kids with positive parental guidance? Probably not – they already know better. Could it have an effect on those without the parental guidance – if they no longer see their heroes smoking on screen (yes, I know their parents should be their heroes, not celebs)? I personally believe it can.

Thinking along those lines, I am strongly in support. I’d prefer for movie studios to voluntarily eliminate smoking from their movies, but I doubt that’ll won’t happen anytime soon.

Bottom line, if it will have a positive influence on some of those that did not have the luxury of great parenting and help some kids to avoid a very dangerous life decision, I’m all for it.

To answer the question as John asked it, “if it can be scientifically shown that smoking in the movies does cause higher rates of teenagers to start smoking… should we be willing to consider phasing smoking out of movies today?” Absolutely

On a side note, I’m loving the movieblog more and more because the more comments I read, the more it seems like even when people disagree about something here, they GENERALLY handle their discussions with class. Kudos to the commenters.

This is just a feel-good do-nothing measure that’s an easy target to blame for society’s ills.

BTW, in my last post, I put major responsibility on the parents…I realize that kids don’t listen to their parents a lot of the times (like me, I was told never to smoke but I did/do anyway) but I believe with that moral backbone kids are less likely to do harmful stuff to them/other people.

You can also blame the parents, for a) letting their kids listen to harmful music without at least trying to stop it, although this can actually encourage that behavior and b) not teaching their kids better morals than what is being talked about in that music.

My parents taught me certain values and I choose not to act upon what I hear in music or movies and I also choose what to and not to listen to (ie, most rap that degrades women and basically treats them as sperm receptacles…I have no idea why girls don’t pick up on this and why they enjoy being talked about in such a manner). Most of these kids today aren’t taught what’s right or wrong, so they’re easily influenced.

And Black Metal does not suck. I never said Hip-Hop is inferior (because that’s an OPINION), I just said I hate it. And it does too have a negative influence. Don’t even get me started on the negative influence it has on society, and how it perpetuates current stereotypes.

Black Metal pwns. Doug would agree with me on that one.

Ash saves the movie world!

then guns,

then swearing,

then sex,

then movies all-together.

All they need is a foot in the door.

Remember the Columbine shootings? People attacked hard rock music, video games, and freakin MARYLN MANSON! >.Very good points. As I stated during another anti-smoking topic, it’s a simple fad. Society feels the need to dump on smokers, and now they’re going after it on screen.

Remember the Columbine shootings? People attacked hard rock music, video games, and freakin MARYLN MANSON! >.< History repeats itself…