NCI Report: The Role of the Media in Promoting and Reducing Tobacco Use - achutti@gmail.com

MAJOR GOVERNMENT REPORT CONCLUDES THAT TOBACCO MARKETING AND SMOKING IN MOVIES PROMOTE YOUTH SMOKING NCI Report Recommends Strategies to Win the War Against Nation’s Leading Cause of Preventable Death Washington, D.C. – Leaders from the federal government and the nation’s public health community today announced the release of an authoritative National Cancer Institute report that reaches the government’s strongest conclusion to date that tobacco marketing and depictions of smoking in movies promote youth smoking. The 684-page report, The Role of the Media in Promoting and Reducing Tobacco Use, presents definitive conclusions that a) tobacco advertising and promotion are causally related to increased tobacco use, and b) exposure to depictions of smoking in movies is causally related to youth smoking initiation.The report also concludes that mass media campaigns can reduce smoking, especially when combined with other tobacco control strategies. However, youth smoking prevention campaigns sponsored by the tobacco industry have been generally ineffective and may actually have increased youth smoking.This report provides the most current and comprehensive analysis of more than 1000 scientific studies on the role of the media in encouraging and discouraging tobacco use. The report is Monograph 19 in the National Cancer Institute’s Tobacco Control Monograph series examining critical issues in tobacco prevention and control. Research included in the review comes from the disciplines of marketing, psychology, communications, statistics, epidemiology, and public health. The release of the report was announced today at the National Press Club.