TOBACCO IN MOVIES AND IMPACT ON YOUTH - Smoke Free ...

Tobacco in Movies & Impact on Youth
a clearly visible cigarette brand in at least one scene. Another movie Siskiyan also
had the cigarette brand clearly visible many times and so was there in C U at 9.
In Chahaat, the female lead smokes a popular brand of cigarette on many
occasions and during stressful situation and so does the female lead in “My Wife’s
Murder,” “Chocolate,” “Double Cross,” Ek Hasina Thi,” “Julie”, etc. In one
movie “Topless,” the male star asks his wife as why she doesn’t light her own
cigarette instead of sharing his cigarette.
Many movies opened with the female character smoking cigarette in the first
scene itself. Movies like Siskiyan, Khauff comes in this category.
It has been noted that in almost all the instances showing females smoking, the
female character is either the glamorous lead or a rich female belonging to high
class society. An association of beauty, success, emotional and physical
toughness, independence and rebelliousness have often been associated with
female smoking. In many instances even the cigarette brand has been deliberately
shown at the subliminal level. This gives enough indication that such product
placement is a well though out strategy in many cases.
Tobacco brand/product placement and visibility
The 2003 study on the tobacco use in Bollywood films reports that during the 12
years from 1990 to 2002 only 62 brand exposures were recorded, accounting for
only 15.7% of the movies. 58 This was before the restriction on direct or indirect
form of tobacco advertisement under the anti-tobacco legislation, enacted in 2003
and which came in force from 2004.
The equation seems to change absolutely now. Among the movies assessed for
2004-05 at least 40.9% of the movies have either a tobacco product brand
appearance or there was a verbal mention of the tobacco brand name. The figure
comes to 45.9% of all movies with tobacco. This is significantly higher than any
earlier reported brand placement instances anywhere.
Most of these brand placement efforts are in the form of cigarette packets shots,
though there are at least two instances where there is a verbal reference of the
cigarette brand. In the movie “Yahaan,” a movie about young and brave army
officer, a female character asks for a cigarette and then specifically asks about the
brand of the cigarette in an interesting manner and the officer replies, “Benson,”
the colloquial name by which “Benson & Hedges” brand of cigarettes are known.
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