CHAPEL HILL - At least one character in more than two-thirds of animated feature films produced for children over the past 60 years in the United States used tobacco or alcohol with no indication that the practices were unhealthy, a new University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill study concludes. Tens of millions of young children watch the films, often repeatedly, and might be influenced to experiment with such substances as they grow older, researchers say.
"Of 50 films reviewed, 34, or 68 percent, displayed at least one episode of tobacco or alcohol use," said Dr. Adam O. Goldstein, assistant professor of family medicine at the UNC-CH School of Medicine. "Twenty-eight, or 56 percent, portrayed one or more incidences of tobacco use, including all seven films released in 1996 and 1997."
Seventy-six characters smoked for a total duration in all films of more than 45 minutes, and 63 characters drank alcohol for 27 minutes, he said. Good characters consumed the substances as frequently as bad characters did. The feature-length animated films showed cigar and wine consumption most often, but cigarettes, pipes, beer, spirits and champagne were also depicted.
Goldstein presented the findings Thursday (March 18) at an American Medical Association briefing in New York about the media's impact on health behaviors. A report also will appear in the March 24 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association. Besides Goldstein, research assistant Rachel Sobel and graduate student Glenn Newman participated in the study.
"We began this work about two years ago after I took my kids to animated films and was struck and dismayed by seeing tobacco use in these films," Goldstein said. "At first I just chalked it up to an oversight in editing or writing, but then I decided it was more than just coincidence."
Exactly how such scenes affect children is unknown and it would be unethical to expose children as young as ages 3 to 6 to tobacco or alcohol scenes to test their effects, he said. But animation experts agree that children are influenced by the animated films they watch. Thus, a repeated visual diet of tobacco or alcohol through multiple viewings of the typical videocassette likely has some influence that could be avoided just by omitting the scenes. Tobacco and alcohol abuse are chief preventable causes of premature death in the United States.
"The impact of exposure at an early age to tobacco or alcohol use in animated films is beyond the scope of this study, but the success of cartoon-based campaigns such as Joe Camel may shed insight on the potential impact ... on youth," Goldstein said. "Children are clearly seeing positive images of addictive substances that their parents, teachers and society all discourage."
Researchers examined for alcohol and tobacco use almost all G-rated animated feature films released between 1937 and 1997 by MGM/United Artists, 20th Century Fox, Universal Studios, Walt Disney Co. and Warner Brothers Studios.
While a third of recent non-animated films contained some kind of anti-tobacco statement, according to earlier studies, none of the animated films had any verbal message against alcohol or tobacco, they found. Films made after the surgeon general's 1964 report on tobacco hazards contained as much smoking as they did before the report.
Characters who drank frequently got drunk, passed out, hiccuped, lost their balance or fell over, investigators found. An average of 2.5 characters per film drank in the 25 films that showed drinking.
"During the movie 'Antz," which we did not review because it came out in 1998, there was a three-minute drinking scene in a bar," Goldstein said. "When I asked my 5-year-old son Michael what they were doing, he said, 'They are drinking beer.' When I asked him how he knew that, he said, 'You just know it.'"
The physician said he believed that in new general audience animated films, tobacco and alcohol should be left out entirely, just as sex is left out, or the harmful effects must be emphasized. Substance abuse in older films should be made clear on labels or the Internet so that parents can decide whether their children should see them.
Note: Goldstein can be reached at 919-966-4090 or 966-3375. He also can be paged by calling 919-966-4131 and asking for pager 4101. On the day of the briefing, call the AMA at 312-464-5206. Contacts: David Williamson, 919-962-8596, or Dennis Baker, 962-0352.
Journal
JAMA