While You Were Streaming: Tobacco’s Starring Role

Theoretical Background and research questions/hypothesis: On-screen tobacco imagery across varied media point to a persistent problem with the normalization and glamorization of smoking and vaping in entertainment media and pop culture. Long-established research tells us that smoking in movies prompts young people to start using tobacco, and Truth Initiative research published in 2020 was the first to establish that link with episodic streaming entertainment, demonstrating that exposure to tobacco imagery in such media can triple a young person’s odds of starting to vape. Continued on-screen tobacco depictions are putting today’s younger generations at risk of a lifetime of addiction.

Methods: Truth Initiative researchers surveyed 2,384 young people (ages 15-24) between December 2021 and February 2022 to identify the top five streaming platforms: Netflix, Disney+, Hulu, Amazon Prime Video, and HBO. To identify the most popular shows in 2021, researchers then surveyed 3,047 young people (ages 15-24) about every show on each of the top five platforms if it was scripted, in English, and had a new season air in 2021. 460 episodes and over 850 hours of programming to document tobacco depictions were viewed, counting images of tobacco products as they appeared on screen. Researchers coded the top 2021 shows as well as binge-worthy shows that were previous tobacco offenders for the presence of tobacco. In addition, 112 of this year’s most popular movies were coded for tobacco imagery.

Results: We found that 60% of the 15 most popular shows among 15- to 24-year-olds contained depictions of tobacco in 2021, showing no improvement from 2020 and effectively exposing 25 million young people to tobacco imagery. The Showtime hit and this year’s top offender “Shameless” more than doubled its number of depictions from its prior season, propelling Showtime to become the platform with the most tobacco imagery. Previous top offender Netflix demonstrated a notable decline in tobacco depictions, although youth-rated and frequently binge-watched “Stranger Things” continues to include tobacco imagery despite the network’s 2019 pledge to eliminate tobacco depictions in youth-rated shows. 47% of top movies – including 18 youth-rated movies – released in 2021 depicted tobacco imagery, according to a separate analysis by NORC at the University of Chicago. Analysis of the top 2021 Billboard songs revealed that 12.8% of songs had 290 tobacco depictions in their music videos and were viewed over 2 billion times, down dramatically from 23% in 2020.

Conclusions: Tobacco imagery maintained its recurring and often starring role in popular on-screen entertainment in 2021, alongside some incremental progress. More needs to be done to make sure that we continue to drive these numbers down to fully end the influence of tobacco on our culture. Potential actions include transparent anti-tobacco policies from distributors, expanded outreach/education about the deadly effects of tobacco on screen, and vaping prevention ads before and during shows with tobacco imagery.

Implications for research and/or practice: Young people’s exposure to tobacco content from all directions – on the big screen as well as through social media – has important implications on tobacco use. Reducing exposure to tobacco imagery plays a key role in preventing youth tobacco use.