Writing a Thesis on Product Placement

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TOBACCO PERSISTS ON SILVER SCREEN; EVEN MUPPETS MARKET TO KIDS

March 22, 1998

By RAJA MISHRA Knight Ridder Newspapers

The cigar that juts from the mouth of actor Olson Welles as he eyes Kermit the Frog in the "The Muppet Movie" may have been a gift from Philip Morris. The tobacco company supplied the filmmakers with tobacco products, according to newly released company documents. Similar deals were made for "Who Framed Roger Rabbit?," "Die Hard," "Crocodile Dundee" and dozens of other films that, despite being rated PG or R, had huge youth audiences. The arrangements continued through at least 1988 despite pledges by the film industry not to deal with tobacco companies.

Philip Morris has long said it does not target children, but critics believe that deals like these have helped the company circumvent bans on such advertising.

"We know the cigarette companies deny paying to have their brand name appear. They deny advertising to kids. But they get the cigarettes in the movies," said Stanton Glantz, a professor at the University of California at San Francisco who has studied smoking in films.

"A kid coming away from the movies today will have the impression that everyone smokes." "The Muppet Movie" deal raises eyebrows because it is a movie clearly for children. The 1979 film chronicles Kermit the Frog's journey from the swamp to Hollywood. All the main characters, including Miss Piggy and Gonzo the Great, are colorful puppets. Cigars appear in the mouths of three human characters: a bartender, a used-car salesman, and the Hollywood mogul played by Welles.

The Muppet characters are now owned by the Disney Motion Pictures Group, whose officials declined to comment on the use of tobacco in "The Muppet Movie." They did say the company has a policy against contracting with the tobacco industry to showcase its products.

The documents detailing the Philip Morris movie deals were among millions released during Minnesota's lawsuit against the tobacco industry. They do not prove that the filmmakers would not have used tobacco on-screen without the agreement with Philip Morris.

They do show, however, that Philip Morris supplied the filmmakers with tobacco products. The disclosure comes at a time when Congress is trying to figure out how to prevent children from smoking, as part of a settlement with the tobacco industry.

"Surely no member of Congress could possibly vote to provide lawsuit immunity to Big Tobacco after this," said Brian McQuade, executive director of the Coalition for Workers' Health Care Funds, which is seeking to recover money from the tobacco industry. Restricting advertising, most legislators say, is crucial to combating tobacco use by youths. Smoking on the silver screen may render ad restrictions moot.

"You can't dictate to studios that they can't put cigarettes in movies," said Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., the leader of the Senate's tobacco-fighting efforts.

"But maybe we can do away with the obscene practice of compensation for placement of cigarettes in movies."

The major Hollywood studios declined to comment on any product placement deals. They all said policies against contracting with the tobacco industry have been in place since the early 1980s. A Philip Morris representative said: "We do not pay for product placement."

But the Philip Morris documents clearly show that arrangements between Philip Morris and Hollywood continued well into 1988, after the movie industry instituted bans.

"Cigarette placement was done. Sure. There's no reason it shouldn't be," said the head of a product placement firm who asked that her name not be used. Product placement, which provides widespread exposure for a product in exchange for money or free supplies of the product, has become a thriving business. Dozens of companies represent corporate America dealing with Hollywood to place everything from cars to candy on-screen.

The industry trade group, the Entertainment Resources and Marketing Association, forbids its members from representing tobacco companies. But it only began regulating itself in the past decade.

"It was loosey-goosey in those early days. People worked for whoever they could," said Eric Dahlquist Sr., head of the Vista Group product placement company and vice president of the marketing association. The Philip Morris documents show arrangements in "Jaws II," "Grease," "Rocky II," "Blade Runner," "Mr. Mom," "Crocodile Dundee," "Robocop," "Die Hard," "Who Framed Roger Rabbit?" and "Field of Dreams."

These are all films that have had large youth box office takes, according to industry statistics. Many more children have seen them on video, where ratings aren't as much of a barrier. Films that appeal to both children and adults concern legislators because they lend an air of maturity to tobacco. Both Vice President Al Gore and Hillary Rodham Clinton recently have taken the film industry to task for the proliferation of smoking in movies.

"When you have the lead actor in 'Titanic' smoking through almost the whole movie and you have Bruce Willis puffing away in 'Die Hards' 1 through 13 or whatever, you're telling me that doesn't influence kids?" McCain said.

Tobacco industry critics said cigarettes and cigars in these movies and others encourage children to associate tobacco with power, autonomy and success.

"In movies, it is wealthy, glamorous people who smoke. In reality it is much more lower-income people," said Glantz, the University of California researcher. Glantz recently studied the top-grossing movies from 1960 to 1995 and found that in the 1990s the amount of on-screen time for tobacco significantly increased. Glantz blamed the legacy of product placement, in part, for this development. Congress has questioned product placement before.

After a congressman complained about the fact that the 1989 James Bond movie "License to Kill" received $350,000 from Philip Morris, the movie company ran a smoking warning at the end of the film's credits.

As part of the debate on tobacco, members of Congress also have suggested that venues with significant youth audiences, such as James Bond movies or Sports Illustrated magazine, should be off limits for tobacco ads or product placement.

Legal action has never been taken and constitutional scholars doubt that any such bans would hold up in court. Two outside consultants, Charles Pomerantz and Andrew Varela, made Philip Morris' deals with Hollywood, according to the internal documents. Pomerantz has since died and Varela could not be reached for comment. According to Philip Morris personnel records, Pomerantz and Varela were hired to read scripts sent to Philip Morris by movie studios desiring product placement deals.

The first powerful image of the smoker on-screen is widely thought to be Humphrey Bogart's character in the 1942 classic "Casablanca." Since then cigarettes have been used in hundreds of movies. They can convey subtle and powerful messages about a character, and have become a permanent part of the filmmaker's palette.

"Our philosophy is to avoid gratuitous use or reference to cigarettes in film," said Terry Curtis, a vice president of Disney Motion Pictures Group. "But you have to balance it with artistic demands."