Faith-Based Group Steps Up Pressure to Give Movies “R” Rating if They Include Smoking

A faith-based group is calling for an automatic “R” rating for movies that include smoking. The Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility (ICCR), along with an advocacy organization called As You Sow, say they want to limit the amount of smoking young people see in movies.

The film industry already has already sharply reduced the amount of smoking seen in youth-rated films over the past decade in response to pressure from advocacy groups, according to The New York Times. The Motion Picture Association of America has refused to give an automatic ‘R’ to any movie that depicts smoking.

The ICCR and As You Sow are filing shareholder resolutions with the parent companies of the six major movie studios, calling on them to publish reports on the public health effects of any film they produce or distribute. The groups want the companies to include “an analysis of the company’s exposure to reputational, legal and financial risk based on the public health impact of smoking in its movies.”

While Disney-labeled films have not shown cigarettes since 2007, the advocacy groups want the company to extend its restrictions to PG-13 films it distributes under the Touchstone banner for DreamWorks. In a letter to Disney and Viacom, the groups cited a 2013 report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which concluded, “Giving an ‘R’ rating to movies with smoking would be expected to reduce the number of teen smokers by nearly one in five and prevent one million deaths.”

“For over 15 years we have been working with the major studio to act on this issue and the problem is not going away,” the Rev. Michael Crosby, the Tobacco Issue coordinator for ICCR, said in a news release.