DVDs will carry ad against smoking

If Chrissy Hiatt plugs in a DVD of the movie “Clerks II” in December, she’ll be among the first viewers to see a graphic anti-smoking message tucked in with the usual film trailers.

That’s just fine with the 19-year-old student at Spokane’s Havermale High School. After all, Hiatt credits a gritty advertising campaign featuring body bags and stark statistics with her decision to quit a decade-long cigarette habit.

“With all of the commercials, they kind of scared me,” said Hiatt, who started smoking at age 8. “Actually, that’s why I stopped.”

Thanks to an agreement announced Tuesday between a motion picture company and attorneys general in 41 states – including Washington and Idaho – Hiatt’s experience could be expanded to young people across the country.

At least that’s the hope behind the Weinstein Co.’s decision to become the first Hollywood film firm to add anti-smoking public service announcements to DVDs of movies that depict smoking.

Starting in December, DVDs distributed by the independent film company created by Bob and Harvey Weinstein, the brothers who founded Miramax Films, will include popular – and reportedly effective – spots produced by the American Legacy Foundation, the anti-smoking group formed with 1998 tobacco settlement proceeds.

The Weinstein Co.’s action is a response to a September letter from attorneys general in the Northwest and across the country offering free and unlimited use of three anti-smoking ads developed for the “Truth” campaign of the foundation. The ads include “Body Bags,” “1200” and “Shards O’ Glass,” an Emmy-winning spot that debuted during the 2004 Super Bowl game.

The move is aimed at counteracting the influence of high-profile actors and actresses lighting up on-screen, according to a joint statement released by Washington’s attorney general, Rob McKenna, Idaho’s attorney general, Lawrence Wasden, and others.

“We have been trying for years to get Hollywood studios to work with us on what we believe is an important and meaningful protection for our children, and the Weinsteins have stepped up to serve as a model for the entire motion picture industry,” the statement said.

The attorneys general urged 13 Hollywood studios to adopt the practice, but only the Weinstein Co. responded.

“The attorneys general made a very sensible request and we think the concept has a lot of merit,” the Weinstein brothers said in a statement. “Hopefully, our company’s decision to move forward will make other studios reconsider the idea.”

Tobacco use in films has declined, but it continues to be depicted in nearly 90 percent of all R-rated movies and in nearly three-quarters of youth-rated films, according to a study released in July by the foundation and Dartmouth Medical School. Research also indicated that anti-smoking messages lessen the effects on youth of viewing smoking in movies.

“We think it’s so important because smoking in the movies is one of the biggest influences on teenagers taking up smoking,” said Joe Martyak, the foundation’s executive vice president for marketing, communications and public policy.

Martyak said the three ads offered to the movie studios have been among the top spots popular among young people, a contention confirmed by local students.

“Actually, I do think it would make a difference,” said Robert Langlois, an 18-year-old Havermale High student. He recalled an ad in which body bags are piled in front of a tobacco firm to indicate the toll that smoking takes.

“It was the ads and a previous experience with my aunt,” said Langlois, who quit smoking three years ago after his aunt died of smoking-related cancer. “It was like, dude, I can’t do this.”

The Weinstein Co.’s move is admirable, said Bev Diegel, a Havermale counselor who teaches an anti-smoking class. But Diegel said she’s not sure that adding anti-smoking ads to DVD trailers will do enough to counter the effects of the films.

“Anything we do is good, but it’s a mixed message,” she said. “It’s a little hypocritical. There’s the ad, but after that they’re going to see this thing that will impact them more.”