Taking on Tobacco
France moves forward with raising tobacco prices in hopes of curbing its use.
There is a war happening in France between the government and the tobacco industry. As you may remember from our previous article, Going Up In Smoke, the French government proposed a law to outlaw on screen smoking in an effort to curb it’s appeal amongst young citizens. On the 1st of March a singular euro increase in the price of cigarettes will bring the average price of a pack to 8 euros, or $9.80 USD with the plan being to increase the price to 10 euros ( or $12.25 USD) before the end of 2020.
The plan, proposed by Health Minister Agnès Buzyn states that there will be 6 price increases in total and that 80% of that price goes to taxes worth more than 14 billion euros annually to the treasury. Buzyn stated that "These increases spread over time will allow people to prepare, to find ways to stop smoking.” According to the president of the anti-smoking group Droits des Non Fumeurs, Gerard Audereau, more than 47 billion cigarettes are smoked in France every year, and smoking is a key factor in 78,000 deaths each year in France which makes it the country's leading cause of premature death.
Comparatively, approximately 28% of French adults smoke versus 17% of U.S. adults, according to the Center for Disease Control and manufacturers are estimating that the drop in French sales in 2018 will be 10-15%
Late last year, French Socialist senator Nadine Grelet-Certenais accused France’s film-makers of continuing to advertise for the tobacco industry when she stated in the parliament that “Seventy per cent of new French films have at least one scene of someone smoking. This more or less helps to make its use banal, even promote it, to children and adolescents.” The government has planned to raise the price of cigarettes and tobacco in an effort do de-popularize it for the younger generations of French citizens.
There is, however, a silver lining to the smoking crisis as public opinion surveys that show increased numbers of French citizens intend to quit and that the sales of nicotine patches and nicotine chewing gum have increased by nearly 30% as a result of the new measures.
We hope you've enjoyed learning about the French government's efforts of Taking on Tobacco! What do you think about the proposed price hike? Comment below with your thoughts!
Going Up In Smoke
A move to curb the cinematic allure of a lit cigarette.
This past week, French senator, Nadine Grelet-Certenais, has struck a match in the French cinema world by proposing a ban on film stars smoking on screen. She states makes the habit coveted and provides free advertising to the tobacco industry. Now that Agnès Buzyn, the health minister, has echoed her sentiments, film-makers may have their hopes going up in smoke.
Unfortunately, this may be much more difficult than just banning them outright. Smoking a cigarette and French cinema have always gone together, and not just in the sense of being on the screen.
They are both very effective ways to kill time.
Think back to any famous French film without the hero positioned stoically surrounded by a delicate stream of twirling smoke...
What has kept this cinematic construct alive is not that it "looks cool" but, more importantly that it foreshadows the mortality of the French antihero. However, as a juxtaposition to their many on screen smoking characters, two of the most famous French film stars, Jean-Paul Belmondo & Alain Delon, are still alive into their 80s.
This has been mirrored in American film and television as well, specifically in period pieces such as Mad Men, Mindhunter, Narcos, etc. In order to accurately represent how these characters went through everyday life requires what was, at one time, an essential prop in the real world at that time.
While this topic remains debated feverently, we can only hope French film-makers and politicians can come to a compromise to not only preserve artistic integrity, but be weary of glorifying an unhealthy habit.
What do you think about the possibility of the French cinema going up in smoke? Leave a comment below!