Biopics and series, new vectors of smoking in cinema

While in the United States, smoking scenes are generally declining in cinema, some productions, notably biopics, overrepresent them. Behavioral placement strategies have now diversified and are increasingly favoring television series.

Movies have long been tools for promoting tobacco, the impact of which on consumption, particularly among young people, has been amply documented.[1]These are being monitored by Smokefree Media, a civil society organisation financially supported by the Truth Initiative organisation.

Smokefree Media specifically notes the appearances of tobacco products in films that have grossed over a million dollars in the United States. While not disappearing, smoking scenes and product placement scenes have overall decreased in American films since 2007. These scenes still appear in 37.8% of American films today, compared to 70% in 2007.[2]. Smokefree Media has however spotted a slight increase (+2 %) of this phenomenon in 2023. According to its data, behavioral placement would be twelve to twenty times more frequent than oral or image product placement. Among the flagship films of the year 2023, some had a large number of smoking scenes, in particular biopics (biographical films).

A significant presence of tobacco in biopics

Smokefree Media's surveys place biopics at the top of behavioral placements: Asteroid City, by Wes Anderson (179 smoking scenes: 63 scenes with a cigarette, 58 with a cigar, 58 with a pipe), Oppenheimer, by Christopher Nolan (137 scenes, including 104 with a cigarette and 33 with a pipe), Saltburn, by Emerald Fenell (124 Scenes with a Cigarette), Priscilla, by Sofia Coppola, or Maestro, by Bradley Cooper.

Observed since 2016, this concentration of smoking in biopics aims, according to journalist Hugh Linehan, to give the scenes a character that is both realistic and outdated, especially when they occur in public places.[3]. The depiction of smoky bars and workplaces, which most people under 30 have not experienced, is said to contribute to a transgressive, disturbing and strange atmosphere. The actors are less likely to share this conviction; Cillian Murphy, who plays the role of J. Robert Oppenheimer, had to smoke 3,000 fake cigarettes during the filming of the movie, and has announced that his next role will be that of a non-smoker.

Some filmmakers still focus on smoking to express their characters' emotions or to create atmosphere, while other artistic devices are possible. Emerald Fenell, for example, admitted that she set her film in 2006 and 2007, just before the UK banned smoking in public places, so that she could show characters smoking in enclosed spaces.

Television series, a privileged terrain for behavioral placement

The TV series Mad Men, which aired between 2007 and 2015, has often been singled out as a pivotal moment in the on-screen presence of tobacco products. Cigarettes were so central that the series has been described as the prototype for the return of behavioral placements.

In both Europe and the United States, television series seem to have been a preferred vector behavioral placements, their audience may be wider than that of films. In response to demands from civil society, Netflix announced in 2019 that it wanted to eliminate the presence of tobacco in films and series intended for audiences aged 14 and under. This streaming platform nevertheless hosts, in principle for its adult audience, an Indonesian series called Cigarette Girl Who glamourise In France, Netflix is also facing legal action from the National Committee Against Smoking (CNCT), particularly for its documentary series on Formula 1 and its massive sponsorship of tobacco brands.

Keywords: cinema, television series, behavioral placement

©Tobacco Free Generation

M.F.

[1] Charlesworth A, Glantz SA. Smoking in the movies increases adolescent smoking: a review. Pediatrics. 2005 Dec;116(6):1516-28. doi: 10.1542/peds.2005-0141. PMID: 16322180.

[2] Malvern J, Willoughby G, Smoking on film back in fashion as on-screen cigarette use soars, The Times, published January 26, 2024, accessed January 30, 2024.

[3] Linehan H, Smoking hot: The strange story behind the return of cigarettes to the movies, Irish Times, published 27 January 2024, accessed 30 January 2024.