A protest against movies that depict tobacco usage was stopped recently by a no-solicitation policy at Showcase Cinemas in Perrysburg. Heather Pilewski, a leader of Toledo members of STAND, a "youth-led anti-smoker campaign, was disappointed about 20 student-age protesters couldn't pass out literature in front of the movie complex about 6:45 PM. The Sylvania Northview High student said she was upset because the theatre chain recently permitted the group to assemble outside Showcase Cinemas in Maumee. They also had ideas of attending THE WEDDING DATE screening starring Julia Roberts, and raising their hands covered with glow-in-the-dark paint every time scenes showed smokers puffing away. Members of STAND were part of an international day of protest to urge the entertainment industry to stop glamorizing smoking (ok for Eastwood to glamorize, or at least gain sympathy for, euthenasia in Million Dollar Baby, which had the most misleading ad campaign in the history of motion pictures). Movie attendance at the complex was sparse that night, theatre operators said. Yep-just another grassroots operation by concerned citizens-which is how STAND has the hundreds of thousands of dollars to run those non-stop TV ads.

Not long ago, a petition was created on www.thepetitionsite.com that pursued the issue of smoking glamorization on the big screen.

I haven't seen it in the past few weeks; wonder if it filled its signature requirement and was then deleted..?

Ah, once again, Big Pharma money at work. The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation gave Stan Glantz money to further his attempt to censor movies.

What signature requirement would that be? Last I heard no number of signatures collected by any group has the power to over rule the First Amendment. Anyone who would sign such a thing is not only against free speech but is sadly delusional.

yes that guy who wrote the article said everything wrong..we were there because during th emovie we were going to raise our hands low whenever there was smoking(they would be painted with glow in the dark paint) and we were not going to be handing out literature...had to clear that up

Heather,
Why doesn't your group just walk up to smokers on the street and rip the cigs out of their mouths. A kid probably sees more people smoking outside during the day (since we have all been kicked out there) than they do in movies. Also, there have been entire movies dedicated to and glamorizing drug use (Trainspotting, Half-baked, Dazed and Confused, Cheech and Chong) yet nobody ever made a fraction of the noise about that that you people are about smoking.

Nick, I like Heather so leave her alone. When I go see movies I like to cause disruption too. Whenever I see a red car on screen I quack like a duck for 5 seconds. And if it's a (red) Ferrari I quack until I'm thrown out.

Actually I think I do this because of a psychological disorder.

Nick, you just don't understand, because, well, you don't have the mindset of the elite, like Heather and company.

The average slob smoking on the street is not coooooooooool ... like people in the movies. The message is ... "Cool people don't smoke". It's not the smoking, but, the smoker that counts.

Eventually, they will move on and tackle any cooooooool looking smokers on the street ... Squeezer, with his duck disorder, now, they might leave him alone.

quote:

Originally posted by John L:
Eventually, they will move on and tackle any cooooooool looking smokers on the street ... Squeezer, with his duck disorder, now, they might leave him alone.

John, you better not be making fun of me. I think my disorder is covered under the Americans With Disabilities Act so I can probably sue your ass off. I hope you're rich.

BTW, now that Heather has seen a movie with smoking in it, she's probably taken up smoking. Let's all bet on what brand she's smoking. I'm going to say Marlboro Lights 100s.