The more movie scenes of smoking they watch, the more likely Mexican-American youths are to experiment with smoking, researchers at The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center and Dartmouth College report in the December issue of Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers and Prevention.

The three-year prospective study of 1,286 Mexican-American adolescents showed the percentage of new experimenters increased from about 5 percent among those with little or no exposure to nearly 30 percent for those who saw up to 600 smoking scenes. The effect was dose-dependent, with experimentation linearly correlated with movie exposure.

"We suspect the greater impact among Mexican-born might occur because movie-viewing is part of the socialization process for those not born here,” said lead author Anna Wilkinson, Ph.D., assistant professor in M. D. Anderson’s Department of Epidemiology in the Division of Cancer Prevention and Population Sciences.

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Celebrity smoking alert at the Golden Globe award show last night in Hollywood!

Salma Hayek, among the celebrity smokers since filming ‘Frida’, made sure not to give paparazzi another opportunity to catch her smoking cigarettes. The actress was last seen (and photographed) smoking in public in Los Angeles only 2 weeks ago - child in tow.

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Hollywood Star Brad Pitt quit smoking recently.

He had 6 very good reasons: his kids! "That was the only thing that got me to quit smoking. That’s it. Done.", Pitt told W magazine.

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Patrick Swayze talked candidly about smoking and cancer symptoms with Barbara Walters on her TV Special yesterday, January 7, 2009. Patrick Swayze says, he knows that smoking can cause pancreatic cancer. He also talks openly about why he has not yet quit smoking.

- Franc Tausch, PhD, CCHT

This quote from New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg on quitting smoking is just too good to pass it up… Bloomberg is a former smoker himself, by the way.

- Franc Tausch, PhD, CCHT

“It’s relatively easy to stop, and once you stop, you’re going to feel so much superior to those who do smoke that there’s instant gratification.”

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The next time you are watching an old Hollywood movie from the 30s, 40s, or 50s, look at how Humphrey Bogart, Bette Davis, John Wayne, Lauren Bacall, Henry Fonda (and many, many other idols of ‘cool’) just can’t seem to ever stop smoking! The Los Angeles Times as well as some other media now revealed the reason why…

- Franc Tausch, PhD, CCHT

 

Actors from the golden age of Hollywood were paid thousands of dollars by tobacco companies to smoke and endorse their products.

A study reveals how more than 200 stars, including matinee idols John Wayne, Clark Gable and Spencer Tracy, all benefited and one firm paid more than $3m in today’s money in a year.

In return, the tobacco firms funded print and radio adverts for the stars and their films.

The research by the University of California, published in the journal Tobacco Control, shows how film classics of the Thirties and Forties still help to advertise smoking today.

The extent of smoking promotion was revealed following the release of documents from anti-smoking court cases.

Gable, Tracy, Gary Cooper, Barbara Stanwyck and Joan Crawford were all top earners in 1937, each taking $10,000 ($146,583 today) in one year’s sponsorship from American Tobacco, makers of the Lucky Strike brand.

Bette Davis and Betty Gable were also among 50 household names giving endorsements-with others such as Bob Hope paid $2,500 ($36,646).

Deals started as talkies took off with Jazz Singer’ star Al Jolson testifying that Lucky Strike was ‘the cigarette of the acting profession’.

The study, which concentrated on the period between 1927 and 1951, points to classic films such as Casablanca and Now, Voyager that feature prominent smoking scenes, and says glamorous publicity posters helped to ‘perpetuate public tolerance’.

Other brands that benefited from the celebrity endorsement included Old Gold, Chesterfield and Camel.

 

The researchers claim that as a result, more young people took up smoking during the era because they were influenced by Hollywood stars.

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