Smoking Remains Popular Among Adolescents because of Media Portrayal Despite Growing Negativity of the Activity
In "Smoking in movies and adolescent smoking: cross-cultural study in six European countries,” they show that there is a relationship in smoking in young people and the way that smoking is depicted in the media. The article displays a graph of proving this relationship of the UK. When the authors do this, they proclaim that “[the graphs] show a consistent monotonic increasing relationship between exposure to movie smoking and ever smoking” (Morgenstern et al., 2011). This graph provides evidence that despite an overall decrease in smoking in the UK, adolescents are continuing to smoke because of the influence of smoking on television. Moreover, one British television show in particular called Absolutely Fabulous, further proves the media's effect on youth smoking. In Patsy Stone's Best Moments | Absolutely Fabulous, a video depicting various scenes from this show, there are multiple scenes with the character smoking. Not only is this shown, but because the show is a comedy, the mood in these scenes is not negative, but is lighthearted and funny (BritBox, 2019). Because of this, children will subconsciously be perceiving smoking as a light-hearted activity rather than a concerning dangerous one.