Friday, February 26 1999
Thank you Paul for accepting our "rendez-vous." May I first ask you to introduce yourself?
I am relatively new to tobacco control, having begun my current position with the Next Generation California Tobacco Control Alliance in August of 1997.
Prior to that I worked as the director of CLARIA (Consortium for Learning and Research in Aging).
Prior to that I worked for 13 years in the California State Legislature as a staff director to three committees, mainly the Joint Committee on the Arts and the Senate Subcommittee on Aging, under the chairmanship of Senator Henry Mello (the chief advocate for both arts and aging issues in California). I have had about 150 pieces of legislation that I drafted pass and go into law.
Prior to that I was the Deputy Director of the California Arts Council, the state agency for arts.
I have served on several National Endowment for the Arts grants panels, and also served as staff Vice-Chair of two National Conference of State Legislatures Committees. I have served on many boards of directors of arts as well as aging organizations. I have written ten stage plays that have been produced, in NY, Mass. And California in professional theater and college stages. I have won local and regional awards for writing. I have a M.F.A. in playwriting and directing, an M.A. in Drama and a B.A. from UCLA. I live in Sacramento with my wife Cathy, who is the president of an education research consulting company. I have one daughter Tracy, a film student at UCSC and the lead guitarist, lyricist and vocalist for the Muggs, a San Francisco based rock'n roll band. I have also worked in publishing and been a drama teacher in high school and junior college. I was recruited to my present position because I had the reputation for being both a strong advocate for health causes and because I have knowledge of and connections in the entertainment industry.
1. We just learned that James Bond quit smoking (see Le plat du jour Feb 22). Are other movie stars calling it quit or is smoking still very prevalent in the films?
Well, we have an Entertainment Industry Working Group, chaired by Richard Masur ( well known actor and President of the Screen Actors Guild). As a result of our work, Richard published his " Chain-Smoking Letter" in the SAG magazine last Fall. In it he urged actors to question whether using tobacco in film is really an effective prop and challenged actors to take up the cause of limited smoking on screen, because of the impact on children.
Our working group noted that chain letters were big in Hollywood because you can trace who is in power through them. That is, one will know who did Steven Spielberg choose to send his letters to and who did those recipients choose, etc. It's a kind of road map. So we knew actors would be induced to use the letter.
Several actors have followed suit. Pierce Broznan, James Bond, while not an active member of our group certainly knows about our efforts. We are currently trying to interview him to see if it was the Chain-Smoking letter which moved him to action. He said that he was moved by the arguments of health advocates. We have been attacked in some of the daily trade papers, a sure sign that we are having an impact. The attacks are along the lines of how silly to think that you can take smoking out of the movies. It's always been there, etc.
2. Several groups in California have been involved with initiatives to curb smoking in the movies. Can you tell us about them?
Sure. The three main ones are, Thumbs Up! Thumbs Down! a project of the American Lung Association Sacramento. They train students to watch films and television shows and count the number of smoking incidents and record the type of incident pro-or anti-tobacco. They also do the Hackademy Awards and the Phlemmys, spooks of Academy Award and Emmy competitions and give prizes to movies and television shows which do the most to promote health and anti-smoking and ridicule those which have rampant smoking.
Second is the Entertainment Industries Council, an organization which is actually based in Virginia but which has a large office on the Disney lot in Burbank. They work on Depiction Suggestions for use of alcohol, tobacco and drugs in the entertainment industries. They have a track record of success, dating back to their work on getting seat-belts to be used in America and worked through Hollywood to achieve that. They also do a yearly event, called the Prism Awards, held in March, which highlight the socially conscious work done in Hollywood in various categories including anti-tobacco or anti-drug use in film and t.v. and other media.
Third, Americans for Nonsmokers Rights have been active in this area. ANR has just finished an ethnography on the subject of smoking in film, called the Hollywood on Tobacco project of HOT project. They will hold a summit on April 14th in L.A., which we are helping to sponsor.
Other groups work at these issues including a group I co-chair, called the Coalition of California Tobacco Entertainment Media Projects or CCTEMP. We meet four times per year to try and coordinate all the in this area, share information and coordinate calendars. Also active is KCET (L.A. public television) and L.A. County and L.A. Link, projects of the Prop 99 program in California.
3. Movie pictures can also be used to promote health. California paved the way with the anti-tobacco media campaign funded by Initiative 99. What is the situation now?
Is the arrival of a new democrat governor going to help?
What are the main lessons to be learned from California as far as anti-tobacco media campaigns are concerned?
The new governor, Gray Davis, a democrat and foe of tobacco companies will most certainly help.
For several years California had the most aggressive ad campaign one could imagine.
But, the last Governor, Pete Wilson, did whatever he could do to slow do and weaken those ads. In addition, millions of dollars were diverted from Prop. 99 during the middle 1990s when California was faced with a massive budget deficit caused by falling tax revenues, particularly from the effects of defense spending cutbacks.
The Tobacco Control Section of California's Department of Health Services, is the main program paid through Prop. 99 funds. They run three main programs, the development of a network of 61 local, ten regional and 4 ethnic networks which are local tobacco control coalitions. They also devote about 30 million dollars to anti-tobacco ads, and also run a cessation 1-800 quitline.
Their main focus is to de-normalize tobacco use. That is do everything to make sure that tobacco is seen use is seen as an unacceptable habit engaged in by a small minority of citizens (about 18% of adults). The main focus is to use clean indoor air campaigns in conjunction to aggressive media to make it difficult for smokers to smoke freely. We took smoking out of the workplace, including public buildings and restaurants, and last year bars.
In addition Prop. 99 funds a successful research program called the tobacco Related disease Research Program TRDRP, and a schools program called TUPE (tobacco use prevention education) program.
The main lessons learned are:
1. Stay away from forbidden fruit messages, that is kids shouldn't smoke because its an adult habit. These are counterproductive.
2. Go local. As we say, light a 1,000 fires.
The tobacco industry cannot fight battles everywhere. So, be everywhere.
Local ordinances work best.
After many are passed then go to the state level.
3. School programs have not proven effective yet.
We are searching for keys here.
4. Secondhand smoke is the best issue. It's what the industry fears the most.
5. Be aggressive. Find out what the industry wants and do the opposite
6. Fight against and expose politicians who take tobacco money.
7. Make sure your friends don't kill you.
Money for children's health is a worthy cause, but it should be funded through programs other than tobacco taxes.
8. Media campaigns aimed at attacking the industry, which are gruesome, or sarcastic and playful are the best.
9. Don't fall into the youth access trap.
Criminalizing possession is a bad tactic.
It doesn't work and it makes people think they are doing something useful.
It's what I call the Laetril effect.
10. President Clinton won by saying "it's the economy stupid."
We say "it's the industry stupid."
You cannot go wrong by attacking the industry, consistently and relentlessly.
Don't be polite. As Stan Glantz says, make enemies not friends.
11. Keep the infrastructure strong and keep it local.
4. Philip Morris recently launched a $100 million TV campaign supposedly urging kids not to smoke. What is the trick?
Philip Morris has done many focus groups with kids and have structured the youth market into six niches, such as the goody-goods, the stoners, the burnouts, the soces, the jocks, etc.
They found that the most effective two things are, tell kids that they need to make a wise choice and put off smoking until they become adults, and secondly that all other niches will increase smoking if goody-goods tell them not to smoke.
The new ads combine the two.
Having a clean-cut kid tell his or her peers its not cool to smoke has the subtext of "well hey I'm a nerd, and I wouldn't know cool if it bit me, "
Those messages just induce the real market niches, the lonely, the disaffected, etc., to begin or increase smoking.
So Philip Morris looks good to the public and yet they will have ads which are at best neutral in impact, at worst will actually induce kids to smoke.
5. Buying space to air pro-health messages is very expensive. Can you imagine ways to obtain effective access to the media without having to spend fortunes?
Doing events, and picking fights.
You have to become expert at using "the free media."
What that means is, engage in cutting edge stuff, because the news media will cover you. Make sure you give them media worthy events.
Try and influence people who do use the media like entertainers.
It's hard to do, but dollar for dollar, paid ads are so much more effective than almost anything else, I would be hard pressed to say that they aren't worth it.
What you feel like adding:
Stay tough, be cynical (you can't possible think badly enough of tobacco companies), go local. Be smart. Let the tobacco industry do the work for you. That is, whatever they do, counter it. Don't ask why, just do it. They know what they are doing. If they say they have done away with product placement in movies, look for alternate ways. If they say, do a youth campaign, don't. Be aggressive.
Thank you Paul for taking the time to be with us today.
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