Should this be brought in?

[dj_venom]

Well, the joys of free speech. In a movie, you can show someone being brutally murdered, you'll get maybe a M15+ rating. You can show someone going through extremely traumatic experiences, maybe M/M15+. But now, they want to bring in a law saying that if a movie has underage smoking, or strongly encourages smoking, there should be an advertisment before the movie showing the dangers of smoking.

Now, I don't know where I am on this. Recently, Queensland (not sure if it was national), brought in some tough new smoking laws. These prohibit smoking in any business, 4 metres outside of workplace, 25 metres away from playgrounds, and some others.

I for one despise smoking, as I just hate the smell of it, the risk of it, the way it gets in your clothes, everything. And so much for making you look cool, who looks tough when hooked up to a bunch of machines in a hospital.

Anyway, I digress. The question is, should there be compulsory things brought in like this? (The justification for it is to reduce underage smoking, which is believed to be widely encouraged in media, leading to people smoking. Think: Tough hero standing there with a ciggy... whoa dude!)

I don't know where I stand on this. On one hand, I would like smoking reduced. But on the other, is it a case of give an inch take a mile? Will the movies have 10 minutes of public service annoucements, to protect the public who are too stupid to protect themselves?

So, what do the rest of you think?

[Kipi]

For me, this sounds only ridiculous. It would be wiser to show an ad of what violent can cause before the movie...

If they do that first, then I would understand the ad about smoking too, but not before there is nothing about worse things than smoking (killing, for one).

[dj_venom]

Sorry, I forgot to mention that it's about reducing under age smoking. Not smoking in itself (though of course if successful, it will have that effect).

I'll add it to the original post now.

[JonIrenicus]

Well if anything they will be promoting smoking more, and it may be bad but will anyone really change their minds? The short answer is no. People who will smoke will do it. No amount of anti-advertising smoking will do anything.

If your group of friends smoke, there is a high chance you will too. If your friends don't smoke, you probably won't. That is how it is.

Should there be warnings before you go into mcdonalds? Should we warn everyone about everything bad about everything? Maybe the government should just put implants in us all and then they would have everything they want done.

Hell I think there should be a warning in movie theaters for over-priced everything

[dj_venom]

Quote:

Originally Posted by JonIrenicus If your group of friends smoke, there is a high chance you will too. If your friends don't smoke, you probably won't. That is how it is.

I think there is a fact saying a child is three times more likely to smoke if their parents smoke.

[JonIrenicus]

Quote:

Originally Posted by dj_venom I think there is a fact saying a child is three times more likely to smoke if their parents smoke.

That is true. Easy access to smoking + a very young age = new smoker.

[mr_sir]

I think that its a bit extreme to put stuff like that before a movie but I can see why they want to do it. But as others have said, no amount of anti-smoking advertisements will stop a kid from smoking if their friends do it and they think it looks cool. How many underage kids actually think about possible health problems 15 or 20 years later? In general (I'm sure there are a lot of exceptions), when you are a kid all you think about is what is going on there and then.

[shana]

The ads won't change anything, unfortunately!

[Vicsun]

I saw Thank You For Smoking the other day and I've been on three packs a day since. Impressionable youth, indeed

[Chimaera182]

LOL

That didn't show in a theater near me, so I missed it.

I think I'm with Kipi and JI here, and if movies start coming out with ads warning you about movie content, methinks I'll be seeing less and less of them. The damn previews are long enough without getting warnings that the movie contains underage smoking, underage drinking, teenage sex, people eating big macs, loud satanic music, unwholesome ideals, gambling, carrying weapons to school, people doing drugs, drunk driving, indecent care for a minor, the wrong way to install a carbeurator...

[Masa]

I'm glad that we don't have such ridiculous ad warnings

[dj_venom]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Masa I'm glad that we don't have such ridiculous ad warnings

We don't yet, I think it's just looney political correct groups and the like. I doubt it'll get through... then again, at the moment our pollys can do whatever they like due to a majority in both houses, so let's hope they don't want it.

[penguin_king]

if people want to smoke, then chances are they'll smoke. i doubt an ad will change that

[Masa]

The ad isn't there to stop smoking...

[Mr_Snow]

Quote:

Originally Posted by dj_venom We don't yet, I think it's just looney political correct groups and the like. I doubt it'll get through... then again, at the moment our pollys can do whatever they like due to a majority in both houses, so let's hope they don't want it.

they could just run one of the anti-smoking ads (you know, the one about chopping off the leg, or better still if it's a violent movie the one where they cut a brain to show the anurism).

Really grose out the public