After a report from by the anti-smoking group Truth Initiative pointed out how much tobacco is shown in the most popular TV shows, Netflix has decided to reduce the amount of ‘cigarette scenes’ in their originals.
Among other shows, the research found that the second season of Stranger Things shows tobacco in each and every one of its episodes. The number of smoking scenes shown during the season reaches 262 times.
The streaming giant has said that, in programs and movies with a teenage and child audience, smoking will only be shown for “reasons of historical or factual accuracy” from now on. However, as they’ve staed many times, Netflix supports creativity and artistic expression and for that reason they’ll allow smoking scenes in other shows as long as “it’s essential to the creative vision of the artist or character-defining”.
They have agreed with what the report says about how “smoking on the small screen has gone from common to nearly unavoidable“, recognising to Variety that smoking depicted in a positive way can be a very bad influence for young viewers.
In previous seasons of House Of Cards, Orange Is The New Black and many other Netflix original shows, you can clearly appreciate the increasing use of tobacco, which is why they have decided they want to control it, so it doesn’t become worse for audiences in the future.
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