tv shows

American children watch an average of three to fours hours of television daily . Television can be a powerful influence in developing value systems and shaping behavior

About 37 percent of high school seniors are smokers , according to a 2003 study by the University of Michigan Institute for Social Research . Among youth in grades 8 through 10 , smoking rates are lower (21 to 30 percent , but have increased by as much as 50 percent over the past five years . Nationally , 3 ,000 young people become addicted to tobacco daily in California , an estimated

200 teen-agers between the ages of 12 and 17 become regular smokers each day

According to studies by the California Department of Health Services , 18 percent of adults smoke , but most young people believe the rate of smoking is much higher than that - a perception health advocates say is fueled by the resurgence of cigarette smoking on screen

A lot of mass education efforts in California haven 't no one influence on children , teenagers and youth . The increase in smoking on TV and in movies counters the education efforts in the schools . If we compare different films we 'll find o lot of awful and harm characters . For example , characters like Bruce Willis defusing a bomb with a cigarette hanging out of his mouth . Or someone like Arnold Schwarzenegger , he was the president 's fitness expert , posing on the cover of magazines with a big cigar in his mouth . That sends contradictory messages to kids . These are their heroes

On-screen smoking by the likes of Ryder , Julia Roberts , John Travolta and Johnny Depp perpetuates the idea that smoking and drugs is the thing to do "Movies are the icons of popular culture . You don 't need the smoking to have a movie fly , but having it in there has a huge pro-tobacco influence on these kids . It 's not just that everyone is doing it , it 's that everyone you want to be is doing it " says University of California San Francisco 's School of Medicine professor Dr . Stanton Glantz , a member of the state 's Tobacco Education and Research Oversight Committee

But 25-year-old Sean Oliveira says that "all my heroes " smoked in film and on TV when he was growing up . And now , when he sees a movie that has a character smoking , he starts to joins for a cigarette "Remember Barfly ? I walked out of there wanting to smoke so bad " he says . But it 's not only Hollywood fueling the message that being young and hip means lighting up . Women 's fashion magazines regularly feature insider photos of top runway models and rock stars partying hard in Euro-hip nightspots , cigs dangling from million-dollar lips . And for the glamour-seeking common folk , cigars have hit the peak of their popularity , with cigar rooms and "humidor societies " popping up in cities all over the country

The latest hook used by at least one tobacco company has elevated savvy

marketing to a new level , one that will circumvent changing...