SMOKY DEALS

Children's movies supplied with tobacco, documents say

WASHINGTON -- The cigar that juts from the mouth of Orson Welles as he eyes
Kermit the Frog in the ``The Muppet Movie,'' a children's film, may have
been a gift from Phillip Morris.

The tobacco company supplied ``The Muppet Movie'' filmmakers with tobacco
products, according to newly released internal 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. Phillip Morris has long
said it does not target children, but critics believe that deals like these
have helped the company circumvent legal bans.

``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 -- Miss Piggy, 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,
and officials there refused to comment on use of tobacco in ``The Muppet
Movie.'' They did say the company currently has a policy against
contracting with the tobacco industry to showcase its products.

The documents detailing the Phillip Morris movie deals were among millions
released during the state of Minnesota's ongoing lawsuit against the
tobacco industry. They do not prove that the filmmakers would not have used
tobacco on-screen without the agreement with Phillip Morris. They do show,
however, that Phillip Morris supplied the filmmakers with tobacco products.

The disclosure comes at a time when Congress is trying to figure out how to
best 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 efforts.
``But maybe we can do away with the obscene practice of compensation for
placement of cigarettes in movies.''

The major Hollywood studios refused 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 Phillip Morris representative said: ``We do not pay for product
placement.'' But the Phillip Morris documents clearly show that
arrangements between Phillip 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 firms represent corporate America dealing with
Hollywood to place everything from cars to candy on screen.

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

The Phillip 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 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
First Lady 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?'' said
Sen. McCain.

Tobacco industry critics said that 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.