Local youth voice their concerns in Washington, D.C., about tobacco imagery in films
Students traveled to Washington, DC this past week to share their concerns regarding tobacco imagery on screen. The students were representing Reality Check, New York State’s youth led movement aimed at reducing youth exposure to tobacco in stores and on screen.
Kat Wojsiat from Holy Cross Academy, Tatiana Nowakowski from Canastota, Bailey Foster from Chittenango, and Chesah Matteson of New Life Christian School joined forces with youth from across the country sharing concerns about tobacco imagery in the movies kids watch.
These youth each met with their representatives and asked for support to help influence the Motion Picture Association of America to get tobacco imagery out of youth rated films by giving movies that feature smoking an R rating.
In addition, sophomore Kat Wojsiat, spoke as a panelist on the Kenneth E. Warner Series “Tobacco in Culture: The Renormalization and Glamorization of Smoking.” She joined Robin Koval, President and CEO of Truth Initiative®, Michael Tynan Public Health Analyst from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Dr. Joanne Cranwell from the Department of Health, University of Bath U.K., Michael Yudin President of MY Entertainment, and Steven Asarch a writer for Newsweek’s Player One.
Reporter Travis Andrews from the Washington Post served as the moderator. The discussion explored why tobacco imagery is making a resurgence and whether entertainment companies have a responsibility to address the issue of tobacco use on-screen. Kat shared that “there is so much more media now than there was before, for example my parents had movies and some television-shows. Now I have so much more media, I have social media, I have easy access to movies, more so than my parents ever did, I have Netflix, and it is so much harder to monitor what goes onto there.”
Kat also shared during the panel discussion the link and power between movies, shows and social media. “Images of actors and actresses using tobacco products are on social media platforms as well as in the movies and shows they are in. The images of them smoking often portray them in a very positive way,” said Kat.
According to ‘While You Were Streaming’ a new report from Truth Initiative youth and young adults with high exposure to tobacco imagery are twice as likely to begin smoking as those with less. Tobacco use continues to be portrayed positively amongst celebrities in movies, video games and increasingly in streaming video content. In fact, 79 percent of shows most popular with young people between the ages of 15-24 depict tobacco use.
These young people are bringing back the skills and knowledge that they learned to their home communities. They want to connect with local elected officials to share with them what they learned and get their support. In addition to this Chesah Matteson is planning on sharing what she learned with her school in June. “Seeing all of the statistics about smoking in movies and shows demonstrates to me that smoking imagery really has a big impact on youth. I will be presenting the power point presentation that was shared with us this past week along with highlights and photos from this event.”
Truth Initiative is the national public health organization that directs and funds truth, one of the largest and longest running youth smoking prevention campaigns. To find out more about Truth Initiative, please visit truthinitiative.org. Youth interested in getting involved can enlist at thetruth.com. To find out more about Reality Check visit realitycheckofny.com.