The following was posted on the CNN Money e-gram this morning. What do you think? Is the professor out to lunch on this one? Or is smoking just as bad as the violence or sex, which gets an "R" rating? Or might it fall under one of the lesser categories?

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Should a movie with people in it who smoke rate an

 

An 'R' rating would be about as effective as the TV advertising ban has been.

 

The R rating would not, in and of itself, change kids emulating behavior, but it would be another nail in a coffin that has been lingering above ground for far too long.

There is a ton of evidence that Joe Camel and the Marlboro man were seen as cool symbols by all manner of young folks and even the tobacco industry has felt the effects of pulling those symbols from magazines and racing hardware. One of the growth industries in tinsel town is the extra $$$ that movie makers get from including branded products in the scene. Does anyone really believe that there are as many MacIntosh laptops out there in real life as what shows up on screen (that was one of the primary reasons that the Mac cover was designed to have a lighted Apple logo when the machine is turned on)? That same revenue stream is being enhanced by getting actors to light up.

To suggest that a 15 year old girl, seeing Angelina Jolie taking a drag on a cigarette, isn't going to strongly consider that she too could be sexy and cool by emulating Jolie's behavior, is to deny the enormous power of advertising.

I'm all for anything that incrementally takes a bite out of an industry that has brought death and heartbreak to so many for so long.

 

Why haven't more ppl voted in this poll? It's anonymous, after all
Does it mean that only 4 people are reading the Vintage Poly Forum
Are the lurkers who are too lazy to even form an opinion about something as harmless as this query ??????

 

Chaz, please consider moving this thread back into the main Vintage Forum.

I should have started it there b/c it's NOT inherently 'political'....nor have the few responses been testy

 

I voted BS. Just what we need...another group telling us what we need!

 

Gee Jerry, already trying to go over my head? How long did that take, 4 days? And I didn't even say anything.

 

More namby-pamby crap.

 

I voted BS, no worse than seeing people in the real world smoking.

 

Gee, I apologize....can't teach old new Bill who???

If you wish, I'll go back and edit the to say "Bill...."

In any event, I'm glad to see more action on the POLL and not too much controversy. I think it's an issue that red & white can agree on