CURRAN PROVIDES HOLLYWOOD WITH ANTI-SMOKING MESSAGES FOR DVDS

Maryland Attorney General J. Joseph Curran Jr., announced today that he has again called upon Hollywood’s major motion picture studios to insert anti-smoking public service announcements in all DVDs, videos and other newer home viewing formats of movies in which smoking is depicted. This time, however, Attorney General Curran sent each studio three "classic" truth® anti-smoking campaign messages that were created by the American Legacy Foundation and are available at no cost for the studios’ unlimited use. Attorney General Curran, who has the lead on this project, is joined by 40 other Attorneys General who signed the letter as well.

"I hope we’ve made an offer that the studios will be happy to accept," said Attorney General Curran. "Public service announcements already appear on DVDs for many worthwhile causes and organizations, and they are often linked to themes prevalent in the movies they precede. While we would like to see a reduction of smoking depictions in movies seen by youth under 18, we are hoping that the studios will take advantage of using these anti-smoking messages whenever the movie depicts smoking."

Curran’s letter follows an earlier November 2005 request from him, which was signed by 31 Attorneys General, to the studios to help prevent youth smoking by inserting anti-smoking messages on movies that depict smoking. The studios never responded to the Attorneys Generals’ letters. Instead, Motion Picture Association of America President Dan Glickman wrote to the Attorneys General that only the individual companies could decide whether to run PSAs on DVDs or videos and that the industry would consider PSAs as one possible idea in an overall anti-smoking campaign effort. To date, the Attorneys General have received no further indication from the studios or the MPAA of progress on an anti-smoking PSA effort.

Today's letter and the earlier request were sent to the CEOs of Paramount Pictures, The Walt Disney Company, Miramax Films, DreamWorks SKG, Sony Pictures Entertainment, MGM Pictures, Universal Pictures, Warner Brothers Studios, Fox Filmed Entertainment, and New Line Cinema. Today's letter was also sent to the CEOs of three independent studios: Lionsgate, MTV Network and The Weinstein Company.

Click here to see the letter.