Dean Plays Role in MPAA Move

After the Dean of the Harvard School of Public Health advised the film industry to curb on-screen smoking, the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) announced that it will more seriously consider smoking in its ratings decisions.

In his February presentation to the MPAA, the dean, Barry R. Bloom, and colleagues from Harvard and Johns Hopkins, presented studies indicating that exposing children to smoking in movies increases their odds of taking up the habit.

“I think he did a very good job of putting the last nail in the coffin on the science issue,” said Stanton A. Glantz, the director of Smoke Free Movies, an organization that promotes reducing smoking in films.

Shortly after the MPAA’s announcement on Thursday, Bloom released a statement that called the film industry’s move “an important and historic step.”

Jay A. Winsten, an associate dean at the School of Public Health who presented with Bloom in front of the MPAA, echoed this sentiment and called it a step in the right direction.

“In one fell swoop we’ve gone from not even being on the playing field in terms of consideration of smoking in ratings to having it on the same level as sex and violence,” he said. “You can’t hit a grand slam without bases loaded, and this was a clean single to center field.”

But Glantz objected that the changes did not go far enough.

“The specifics of what [the MPAA] put forward is useless,” he said.

Instead, he recommended that smoking automatically merit an R rating.

According to Winsten, some Harvard professors began a dialogue with current MPAA CEO and Chairman Daniel R. Glickman before he left his previous post as director of the Institute of Politics.

“He said he wanted to do something about this issue but that it would take him some time to get to it,” Winsten said.

At Glickman’s invitation, Bloom and Winsten presented their suggestions to the MPAA in February.

According to published records of his remarks, Bloom said that certain measures, such as the mandatory R rating, “would achieve the goal of eliminating smoking in youth-rated films.”

But the MPAA did not adopt the reforms Bloom mentioned, and Glantz criticized Bloom’s reaction to Thursday’s announcement as overly conciliatory.

“I don’t think it’s fatal,” Glantz said of Bloom and Winsten’s endorsement of the change, “but they need to watch what they say or they could screw everything up.”

Winsten called the mandatory rating proposal “draconian,” and expressed confidence that, with pressure from advocacy groups, the ratings board would get stricter on smoking in cinema without an automatic R.

“Stan Glantz and everyone else will be doing content analysis and tracking how much smoking is in films. The advocates will... keep the pressure on, which they should,” he said.

And on that, at least, they are in agreement.

“Trust me, we’re going to be watching,” Glantz said.

The MPAA couldn’t be reached for comment. Bloom declined to be interviewed for this article.

—Staff writer Clifford M. Marks can be reached at cmarks@fas.harvard.edu.