Smoking in ‘Land of the Lost’ Brings Reprimand to Universal Studios

[Willis]

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/19/business/media/19lost.html

“Land of the Lost” is the gift that just keeps on taking for Universal Pictures.

The American Medical Association Alliance, a volunteer arm of the powerful health organization that focuses on family issues, on Friday released its scorecard for the depiction of smoking in mass-appeal summer movies. Universal was the biggest offender because of “Land of the Lost,” the big-budget failure that helped cost the co-chairmen of the studio their jobs this month.

The alliance said it counted 18 shots of Will Ferrell holding a pipe in the movie, resulting in about 124 million tobacco impressions. (The industry generally calculates an “impression” by multiplying the number of incidences by the film’s total gross, then dividing by the average ticket price.)

“ ‘Land of the Lost’ wasn’t just a flop at the box office, it was also a real loser for public health,” said Nancy Kyler, president of the American Medical Association Alliance.

The group did not name the second- and third-place offenders. A Universal spokeswoman declined to comment.

The studio did catch a break, however. In May, the organization, working with the Los Angeles Department of Public Health, announced that the studio found to be the biggest smoking offender would be publicly shamed on nearby billboards. But billboard vendors throughout Los Angeles — which the alliance said are heavily dependent on entertainment industry advertising — refused to run the ad, according to Ms. Kyler.

“It’s a sad day when movie studios can promote smoking to youth, but public health advocates cannot find a billboard in the whole city of Los Angeles that will run an ad to alert the public about the problem,” she said.

[LarryOldtimer]

Careful, now.   "smoking is bad" contains the word "smoking" and obviously promotes smoking.  Funny thing is, when my first child was small, my mother said "Whatever you do, if there are any loose beans or peas around, never say, 'Don't put one of those things in your ear', because if you say that, shortly thereafter your daughter will surely put one of them in her ear."

[Willis]

Careful, now.   "smoking is bad" contains the word "smoking" and obviously promotes smoking.  Funny thing is, when my first child was small, my mother said "Whatever you do, if there are any loose beans or peas around, never say, 'Don't put one of those things in your ear', because if you say that, shortly thereafter your daughter will surely put one of them in her ear."

A very valid point you make. It's comical that these people really think movies are urging kids to smoke.

[LarryOldtimer]

I vaguely remember a movie I saw back in 1955, The Man with the Golden Arm.   The message was quite clear . . . it was a dreadful thing to become addicted to those sorts of drugs.  Had to have a lot of gold if you put that stuff in your arm, you did.  I never tried any of it, because my thought was:  "What if it turned out I really liked it?"  "What if I became addicted to it?"  "What what would I have to do to raise that kind of money?" Mind, I don't recall any lengthy lecture about "don't do drugs" involved in the movie.

This nation never had a serious problem with "illegal drugs" back then.  Anyone who was actually using drugs would have been a real novelty for us ordinary folks.  Making criminals out of those who had managed, through stupidity, to become addicts was a really insane thing to do.  But then, Nixon had to have his "war" with liberal college students.