Elsewhere in the United States, the agitation to stop smoking in movies was started by doctors about 25 years ago and the campaign is still on. Apart from violence, one seeming anti-social scene in Nigeria's popular home movie series, otherwise called Nollywood, is the spectre of smoking. Anti-tobacco activists say this is a negation of the law that bars tobacco firms from advertising. Godwin Haruna writes in This Day.
Promotion of Smoking... Nollywood’s Bad Example - This Day
February 26, 2007
Elsewhere in the United States, the agitation to stop smoking in movies was started by doctors about 25 years ago and the campaign is still on. Apart from violence, one seeming anti-social scene in Nigeria's popular home movie series, otherwise called Nollywood, is the spectre of smoking. Anti-tobacco activists say this is a negation of the law that bars tobacco firms from advertising. Godwin Haruna writes
With dazzling stage lighting, the glamorous typical home movie in Nigeria begins with a razzmatazz of some sorts. Then in a twinkle of an eye, the tick smoke being puffed by actors and actresses clouds the beautiful lighting. As if that does not offend the sensibilities enough, the camera is directed to a pack of cigarette resting somewhere and ready to be pulled out for more action amid the tick (sic) smoke.
This singular feature of most of the movies in the Nollywood series dominated discussions at the event organised to mark this year's International Week of Action for Smoke Free Movies in Lagos last week. Speaking at the occasion, Mr. Akinbode Oluwafemi, programme manager, Environmental Rights Action/ Friends of the Earth, Nigeria (ERA/FoEN), frowned at the incidence in a speech he titled, "A Case for Smoke free Nollywood". He characterised the smoking scenes in the movies as a disservice to the youths, who are the clear majority in watching movies.
Oluwafemi noted that the week is set aside by tobacco control activists, public health experts and community groups to mobilize action and pressure policy makers on the need to stop the film industry from using their medium to promote tobacco consumption. "With more governments banning tobacco advertisements and promotion, the industry has intensified its use of brand placements and other indirect means of advertisement. Tobacco kills 4.9 million people annually. It harms the economy and the environment. There must be concerted effort therefore, to reduce youth exposure to the glamorization of tobacco", he stated.
He said in the United States, Hollywood movies alone are estimated to deliver tobacco impressions estimated in the billions to young people annually. According to him, studies have concluded that on-screen tobacco recruits 390,000 new teen smokers annually in the United States alone. Oluwafemi noted that researchers have come to the conclusion that the portrayal of tobacco use in films may be more psychologically engaging than a cigarette advert and may be of more impact on youths smoking and attitude to smoke.
"In most cases, the decision to smoke is not made by adults. 60 per cent of smokers start by the age of 14, and 90 per cent of smokers becomes addicted before reaching age 19. Put in another way, only one in 10 smokers become addicted after the age of 19. So, almost no one starts smoking after age 19", he stated.
He further stressed that teenagers remain the biggest audience for films. Therefore, he rationalised that the tobacco industry has recognised that movies are a powerful tool to recruit young smokers. This, he added, they have been doing through pay offs to actors and directors, brand placements and glamorisation of smoking in movies.
He gave the following instances to buttress his point: The producers of License to Kill got $350,000 to have James Bond smoke Larks; In Superman 11, a woman reporter Lois Lane, a nonsmoker in the comics, chain-smoked Marlboros, and the Marlboro brand name appeared 40 times in the film. For that Philip Morris paid a mere $40,000 to the producers; Sylvester Stallone (Rambo), got $500,000 payment to smoke a tobacco brand in three films.
According to Oluwafemi, because of the rapid growth of the Nigerian film industry it has become the world's third largest. He added that it was very popular not only with Nigeria's 140 million people but across Africa and the whole world.
"Sadly, as the Nigerian film industry continues its giant strides,
the tobacco industry has moved in and is surreptitiously using
Nollywood to recruit smokers across Africa. Nigerian films are almost
becoming synonymous with tobacco adverts, no thanks to the unnecessary
on- screen scenes glamorising tobacco and brand placements", he
stressed.
In its quest to confirm the practice beyond all doubts, he said
ERA/FoEN conducted a critical screening of 10 new movies. The movies,
he added, were selected off the shelve randomly. The 10 movies surveyed
include, Million Dollar Sisters, Fatal Seduction, Battle for Battle,
Holy Warden and GL2. Others are Virgin's Heart, Games Angel Play, War
Game, Living in Pain and My own Share.
Oluwafemi noted that their findings were shocking: "Smoking scenes, mostly unnecessary and of no value to the plot, were prevalent. Tobacco smoking was portrayed as widespread in Nigeria, classy, desirable and cool. There were instances of brand placements in GL2, Million Dollars Sisters, Virgin's Heart, Fatal Seduction, Battle for Battle and War Game. The brands were BAT's Benson and Hedges and London. More worrying is the use of actors posing with cigarette and recognizable tobacco packs on the posters and sleeves of films. The actors that smoke in the film are role models whose lifestyles are of overbearing influence on the youths, actors like Jim Iyke, Rita Dominic, Hanks Anuku, etc.".
He stated that it was shameful and morally wrong for the industry to continue with brand placement in Nigerian movies when they claim they no longer advertise to youths.
He used the opportunity to call on the Nigerian Video Censors Board to put in place clear codes about smoking in movies. "Our appeal also goes to the Nigerian Guild of Directors, Actors Guild and all involved in the movie industry to stop being tools for the tobacco industry's wicked drive for the lives of our young brothers and sisters", he stated.
The tobacco control activist suggested that the producers of a film with tobacco imagery should post a certificate in the closing credits declaring that nobody received or the production received anything of value from anyone in exchange for using or displaying tobacco. He also said there should be neither tobacco brand identification nor the presence of tobacco brand imagery (such as billboards) in the background of any film scene.
Furthermore, he canvassed that studios and theatres should require a genuinely strong anti-smoking advertisement to run before any film with any tobacco presence, in any distribution channel regardless of its age classification.
He also said another policy measure could be that any film that
shows or implies tobacco should be given the minimum rating that will
substantially reduce adolescent box office revenue.
He noted that the Framework Convention on Tobacco or Health
Control (FCTC) obligates ratifying countries to implement a
comprehensive ban on tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship.
Oluwafemi stated that they never imagined the desperation of the tobacco firms, which had already stated that they were stopping tobacco advertising to have penetrated the movie industry in Nigeria in the massive manner they did. He said they were going to do a petition signed by all the tobacco control groups in the country to the Nigerian Films and Censors Board, the Ministers of Information, Youth, Education, Health, Culture and Sports. He also promised to engage the Nigerian Guild of Actors and producers in order to sensitise them adequately as role models for the youth.
"We are not condemning the Nigerian actors for doing this, but we need to educate them. Let them know that what they are doing is impacting negatively on the lives of their fellow Nigerians. If the young ones are dying, you will not have the group that will most patronise your product. We want to get some of them involved in this campaign within the industry", he stated.
He said the withdrawal of tobacco from movies would not affect the industry adversely, because when a similar thing happened in the newspaper and the broadcast industry, the institutions still survived. Although he said they do not even know the amount of monetary contribution of the tobacco industry to the Nigerian movie industry, nonetheless, he said the partnership must end.
Also speaking, Mr. Adeola Akinremi, a tobacco control activist noted that it was not the first time the tobacco firms would surreptitiously use unsuspecting platforms to advertise their products. Akinremi said they have cleverly used musical and television shows to lure vulnerable members of the public, especially the youths, into using their products. He advocated that government must use relevant laws to stop them in their bid to render the most productive segment of the population useless through smoking.
In her contribution, Mrs. Julie Omoyemi, media officer with ERA/FoEN said all the movies researched into were randomly selected from video shop. Omoyemi noted that smoking scenes merely glamorises the habit without adding any significant plot to the movies. She said of the 10 sampled, the only one without a smoke scene had an actor pose with a cigarette on the VCD sleeve.
"These scenes are without significance to the main plot. Prominent actors like Emeka Ike, Jim Iyke and Rita Dominic, who wield some considerable influence on today's youth smoke and directly or indirectly, glamorise smoking. Home videos should be suitable for home viewing devoid of sneaky advertisements in the form of tobacco brand placements and endorsements", she stated.
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