Ministry of Health - Smoking Scenes Ban

(see related article)

Surveys to determine Impact of Smoking Scenes in Movies on encouraging smoking amongst the Populace.

Three separate Surveys may be conducted each by a different team, on a country-wide basis

Survey A :

Review of Occurrence of Smoking Scenes in all Movies Certified by Censors during last five years

A.1 Total Number of Movies Certified in each of the years for the selected period

A.2 Number of Movies in which Smoking Scenes or tobacco advertising have occurred

A.3 Number of times for which smoking scenes or tobacco advertising have occurred in each of the movies and time period for which each scene lasted in seconds

A.4 Number of Scenes in which a Cigarette or its package is shown with the Brand name, or has tobacco advertising with a break-up of the Brands and duration of each such scene

A.5 Number of Scenes in which an unbranded cigarette or package are shown

A.6 Number of scenes in which the Main Character is shown smoking or holding a cigarette of holding a package, (branded and unbranded separately)

A.7 Number of scenes in which a Bad Character on screen is shown smoking or holding a cigarette or holding a package, (branded and unbranded separately)

A.8 Number of scenes in which other characters are shown smoking or holding a cigarette or holding a package, (branded and unbranded separately)

All the above data will need to be broken down regionally i.e. by Region/Language of the Movie.

Survey B:

Survey of Existing Smokers to reveal:

1. Age at which smoking commenced for the first time
2. Age at which smoking became a habit
3. Number of years for which smoking habit has continued
4. Primary Impetus/Reason to start smoking
5. Other contributory factors present at the time of commencing smoking, e.g. parents/sibling/friends smoking, mental stress or other psychological factor, living environment etc.
6. If Primary Impetus was other than a smoking scene in Movies, the impact, if any, on such smokers of seeing smoking scenes in movies prior to starting smoking
7. If Primary Impetus was smoking scenes in Movies, the precise thinking which led to smoking by the Respondent (Excitation Transfer Theory or Forbidden Fruit Theory)

The above data will need to be divided by sex, age groups (current age), socio-economic background and Regions. The sample itself may be selected taking adequate number for each sub-group

Survey C:

Survey of Non-smoking populace including adolescent age group:

To determine frequency of exposure to smoking scenes in movies and co-relation thereof with urge to smoke