Other LanguagesOLYMPIA --- Attorney General Rob McKenna has again called upon Hollywood’s major motion picture studios to insert anti-smoking public service announcements in all DVDs, videos and other newer home viewing formats of movies in which smoking is depicted.
This time, McKenna sent each studio three "classic" truth® anti-smoking campaign messages that were created by the American Legacy Foundation and are available at no cost for the studios’ unlimited use.
"We want to make it as easy as possible for Hollywood to help us reduce underaged smoking," said McKenna. "Public service announcements already appear on DVDs for many worthwhile causes and organizations, and they are often linked to themes prevalent in the movies they precede. While our emphasis is on preventing youth smoking, we hope that the studios will take advantage of using these anti-smoking messages whenever the movie depicts smoking."
McKenna’s letter follows an earlier request made to the studios by 32 Attorneys General last fall, asking for help in preventing youth smoking by inserting anti-smoking messages on movies that depict smoking. The studios never responded to the Attorneys Generals’ letters.
Instead, Motion Picture Association of America President Dan Glickman wrote to the Attorneys General that only the individual companies could decide whether to run PSAs on DVDs or videos and that the industry would consider PSAs as one possible idea in an overall anti-smoking campaign effort. To date, the Attorneys General have received no further indication from the studios or the MPAA of progress on an anti-smoking PSA effort.
Today's letter and the earlier request were sent to the CEOs of Paramount Pictures, The Walt Disney Company, Miramax Films, DreamWorks SKG, Sony Pictures Entertainment, MGM Pictures, Universal Pictures, Warner Brothers Studios, Fox Filmed Entertainment, and New Line Cinema.
Attorneys General from the following forty states also signed the letter: Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Connecticut, District of Columbia, Delaware, Florida, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Massachusetts, Maryland, Minnesota, Montana, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Northern Mariana Islands, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Puerto Rico, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Tennessee, Utah, Vermont, Virgin Islands, West Virginia, Wisconsin and Wyoming.
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For more information contact:
Maureen Scharber, Public Information Officer, (360) 753-6224 MaureenS@atg.wa.gov