Movie Studios Should Give Smoking Scenes ‘R’ Rating, Class Action Says

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The Motion Picture Association of America faces a potential class action lawsuit that revolves around the use of smoking scenes in movies that are supposed to be child-friendly.

Plaintiff Timothy Forsyth claims that movie scenes that depict smoking lead to a higher risk of cigarette addiction in adolescents and goes on to state that if movies containing smoking scenes included a warning or an “R” rating, parents would not have bought tickets for their children.

In the MPAA class action lawsuit filed in federal court in California on Feb. 25, Forsyth claims that since “at least 2003” the MPAA and movie studios “have known that exposure to tobacco imagery in films rated G, PG and PG-13, that is, youth-rated films which are accessible and frequently marketed to attract children and adolescents, is one of the major causes of children becoming addicted to nicotine.”

He filed the class action against six major movie studios and the Motion Picture Association of America to try to stop children from being exposed to tobacco products in movies. Named movie studio defendants include: The Walt Disney Company, Paramount Pictures, Sony Pictures, 20th Century Fox, Universal City Studios, and Warner Bros. Entertainment.

The MPAA lawsuit claims that a number of health experts have recommended that films that include smoking should receive an “R” rating “so as to substantially and permanently reduce the deadly physical harm these films pose to young audiences.”

“According to the scientific evidence, if defendants continue their current rating of films with tobacco imagery, defendants’ conduct will kill approximately one million children,” the complaint states.

Health experts and organizations, including the World Health Organization and the American Medical Association, have recommended that smoking in films targeted at youth be eliminated “so as to substantially and permanently reduce the deadly physical harm these films pose to young audiences,” Forsyth says in the 59-page lawsuit.

In 2007, he says 31 state attorneys general wrote letters to the MPAA and the major studios demanding immediate action to “eliminate the depiction of tobacco smoking from films accessible to children and youth. There is simply no justification for further delay.”

But since 2012, thousands of films depicting smoking have been deemed suitable for children, causing more than 1.1 million children under 17 to become addicted to nicotine and the premature death of 360,000 people, Forsyth says in the complaint.

The MPAA class action lawsuit details the long history of tobacco companies and the film industry, dating back to 1927. In the 1950s, the money moved to television, until cigarette ads were banned in 1970s. Tobacco companies then began paying for product placement in movies, the lawsuit states.

From 2003 to 2015, the top 1,870 films featured 34,600 scenes with tobacco use and less than half were rated “R,” according to the complaint.

“Tobacco imagery was featured in half of all top-grossing films released in the four years 2012-2015,” the complaint states, while citing numerous studies showing the harm this does.

The MPAA argued back through a released email statement, “For almost 50 years, the MPAA’s voluntary film ratings system has provided parents with advance information about the content of movies to help them determine what’s appropriate for their children. This system has withstood the test of time because, as American parents’ sensitivities change, so too does the rating system.”

Forsyth is seeking class certification, an injunction, and damages for fraudulent misrepresentation, private and public nuisance, negligent misrepresentation, false advertising, unfair competition, and negligence. The MPAA lawsuit is seeking to represent a nationwide or, alternatively, a California Class of parents who bought tickets to see movies deemed suitable for young children but actually contained smoking images within the last four years.

The plaintiff is also seeking damages in excess of $5 million and an injunction that would require the MPAA and its members to assign an “R” rating to any movie containing smoking that isn’t in the context of portraying a real historical figure who actually used tobacco.

Forsyth is represented by Jeffrey F. Keller, Carey G. Been and Sarah R. Holloway of Keller Grover LLP.

The MPAA Class Action Lawsuit is Timothy Forsyth v. Motion Picture Association of America Inc. et al, Case No. 3:16-cv-00935, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.