Smoking in Movies Influences Teens

This report on why teens start smoking is interesting because it shows that films do have influence on people, especially young people.

The report found that even brief exposure to advertising influences adolescent attitudes. Three-quarters or more of hit movies depict cigarette smoking, and specific brands can be identified in about one third.

Last month, six major movie studios -- Viacom Inc's Paramount Pictures, Sony Pictures, News Corp's Twentieth Century Fox, General Electric Co's Universal Pictures, Walt Disney Co and Time Warner Inc's Warner Bros -- said they would place anti-smoking public service announcements on DVDs of all movies with youth ratings that depict smoking.

So if movies influence kids to start smoking cause it looks so cool, could it be that movies also influence young people in other areas? Like how they treat women? This might be something interesting to study.

Cigarettes in movies seen to cause teen smoking (Reuters)