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American Medical Association Families Launch $500,000 National Grassroots Campaign to Make Youth-Rated Movies Smoke-Free

Posted on: Friday, 17 November 2006, 12:01 CST

WASHINGTON, Nov. 17 /PRNewswire/ -- The American Medical Association (AMA) Alliance, the 26,000 member volunteer arm of the AMA, received a $500,000 grant from the American Legacy Foundation(R) to launch a nationwide grassroots campaign to reduce youth's exposure to the depiction of smoking in movies.

"No parent in America wants to pay for a movie that pushes smoking at kids. The AMA Alliance believes this initiative hits a central interest of the nation's medical families for the health of all parents and their children," said Nita Maddox, President of the AMA Alliance. "Generations will benefit, therefore the AMA Alliance is proud to serve as the program's first point of delivery in communities around the country."

Through funding from the American Legacy Foundation, the largest national independent public health foundation dedicated to keep youth from smoking and helping smokers quit, the AMA Alliance will lead a parent-to-parent grassroots initiative to make future movies rated G, PG and PG-13 smoke-free.

Studies show one-third of all teens who start smoking each year are recruited primarily by the smoking they see in movies. The AMA Alliance has joined the foundation and a host of other public health institutions, endorsing the four smoke-free movie principles developed by the Smoke-Free Movies Action Network, and calling on movie studio executives to:

* Rate movies with smoking R, * Add anti-smoking public service announcements (PSAs) to movies with smoking, * Certify no payoffs, * End tobacco brand display in movies.

"We are delighted to work with the American Legacy Foundation in a strategic partnership that also includes the American Medical Association, and the American Heart Association. We are thankful for the generous support and look forward to a lasting partnership," Maddox added.

Funding from the foundation will provide AMA Alliance members with a new tool developed this summer by the Smoke-free Movies Action Network. The Screen Out! Parent's Guide to Smoking, Movies and Children's Health provides parents with the facts about smoking in the movies and the trend's impact on youth smoking the U.S. It also provides tools and strategies they need to make a difference on a national scale.

"We have seen a downward 'ratings creep,' in which movie studios are shifting depictions of smoking into teen-rated films, and research continues to prove the link between young people seeing smoking in movies and starting to smoke," said Cheryl Healton, Dr. P.H., President and CEO of the American Legacy Foundation. "The movie rating system is for parents and by parents, and we are extremely pleased to work with the Alliance, as we have with AMA for so long, to tackle the problems of movie smoking in their families and their community."

Youth are exposed to hundreds of smoking images each year in newly released youth-rated films. Despite significant decline in tobacco screen time in R-rated movies, there has been no such decline within youth-rated movies from 1996 to 2004. In 2004, 73 percent of youth-rated movies contained at least one tobacco occurrence.

"The AMA urges the entertainment industry to avoid showing actors and actresses smoking. We are pleased that the AMA Alliance will be assisting in this effort by distributing copies of Screen Out throughout the U.S. and will seek to enlist parents and children in this important effort," said AMA President William G. Plested, III, M.D.

The AMA Alliance, the volunteer arm of the American Medical Association, is committed to public health promotion in their organizational mission. A not-for-profit organization of more than 26,000 grassroots members working in their communities, the AMA Alliance strives to ensure child safety, prevent abuse and violence, promote healthy lifestyles and increase awareness of available health care resources. Visit the AMA Alliance Web site at http://www.amaalliance.org/.

The American Legacy Foundation(R) is dedicated to building a world where young people reject tobacco and anyone can quit. Located in Washington, D.C., the foundation develops programs that address the health effects of tobacco use, especially among vulnerable populations disproportionately affected by the toll of tobacco, through grants, technical assistance and training, partnerships, youth activism, and counter-marketing and grassroots marketing campaigns. The foundation's programs include truth(R), a national youth smoking prevention campaign that has been cited as contributing to significant declines in youth smoking; EX(sm), an innovative public health program designed to speak to smokers in their own language and change the way they approach quitting; research initiatives exploring the causes, consequences and approaches to reducing tobacco use; and a nationally-renowned program of outreach to priority populations. The American Legacy Foundation was created as a result of the November 1998 Master Settlement Agreement (MSA) reached between attorneys general from 46 states, five U.S. territories and the tobacco industry. Visit http://www.americanlegacy.org/.

American Legacy Foundation

CONTACT: Julia Cartwright of American Legacy Foundation,+1-202-454-5596

Web site: http://www.americanlegacy.org/http://www.amaalliance.org/

Source: PRNewswire

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