“Did you hear about this announcement about cigarettes and the movies?” Cal asked.
When no one responded he continued: “The state announced a deal with six major movie studios to run a 30-second California public service announcement on new movie DVDs that point out that smoking is bad for you?”
Cal was reading reports of the announcement from a newspaper. “It says here this effort is supposed to convince young movie-goers that the smoking they see on movies rated G, PG, or PG-13 is not glamorous.’
“Well, its not glamorous,” said Marie. “Good for them. Then kids won’t mimic everything they see up on the screen.”
“I see a big problem,” Grady joined in. “They won’t stop with smoking. Pretty soon you’ll have to wade through ads that tell you that drugs used by the characters in the movie is for dramatic purposes only and you shouldn’t follow the actor’s lead.”
“What’s wrong with that?” asked Marie.
Grady didn’t answer he was on a roll. “Then there will be an ad telling viewers to close their eyes on sex scenes. And those cuss words you hear, never repeat them in front of Mommy and Daddy. Don’t know how they’ll make that ad without repeating the words but they’ll find a way.”
Cal said, “You may be right. And don’t forget guns. How many fewer movies would be made if they eliminated guns?”
“This is adding up,” agreed Marie.
“You see my point,” said Grady. “Right now you go to a movie they tell you to shut off your cell phone and don’t talk. This agreement is for DVDs but I can see someday you’ll have to sit through back-to-back–to-back ads on all sorts of issues. You’ll need to take a bathroom break just to get through the public service announcements.”
Marie suggested, “Maybe they’ll end up just putting up a simple disclaimer in front of films like those Prop 65 ads about cancer causing material you see when entering a building. Something like: The state of California urges you not to mimic the characters in this movie who smoke, drink, swear, use drugs, guns or have sex.”
“Or as those guys who made up the Nike ad would say: Just DON’T Do It.”
“I wonder how far they’ll take this,” Cal mused. “You think they’ll create a public service ad before a movie that says, ‘All business executives and corporations pictured in the following movie are evil and double-dealing but that is not true of all business execs and corporations?”
“Never happen,” said Grady. “Hollywood will go only so far.”
