Ever since the MPAA made the amendment to the ratings system that gets glamourized depiction of smoking a harsher rating, people have been all up in arms. Now we get news that Disney is keeping the House of Mouse squeaky clean with their newest announcement.
Walt Disney Co. on Wednesday became the first major Hollywood studio to ban depictions of smoking, saying there would be no smoking in its family-oriented, Disney-branded films and it would “discourage” it in films distributed by its Touchstone and Miramax labels.
Disney Chief Executive Robert Iger also said in a letter to U.S. Rep. Edward Markey, whose committee last month held hearings on the effects of movie images on children, that the studio would place anti-smoking public service announcements on DVDs of any future films that feature cigarette smoking.
Now before anyone gets all in a huff over this, I have yet to find fault with this move. There is no argument that can be made that would include a glamourous character being depicted as clean and healthy while engaging in a smoker’s habit in a movie aimed at children.
Also, no where has Disney said they would outright BAN smoking on their less family oriented distribution labels. Simply that they would discourage it. Just like those surgeon general warnings you ignore on your cigarette packages, I think that is just a candy coated effort to say they are “trying” to do their part.
So it sounds like Disney is making a move that the MPAA has already stated they will enforce. If a movie contained glamourous smoking, it wouldn’t get the rating their family labels are targeted at, so omitting smoking in any manner isn’t really a stretch. There are a lot of ways that you can depict a character as evil without putting a cigarette in their mouth.
So is this a bold move by Disney, or are they just blowing smoke?
