Could adolescent smoking be reduced by applying an 'R' rating to films in which the characters smoke? Madeleine Kruhly says yes, by almost twenty percent:
[Norris Cotton Cancer Center researcher James] Sargent and his colleagues were able to infer that giving an R rating for any movie showing smoking "could substantially reduce adolescent smoking." He proposes it might even reach an 18 percent decrease (a figure based off of risk estimations, probabilities of smoking onset, and the above MSE levels). So, Sargent ultimately calls on the movie industry to take the same measures as they do in considering scenes of violence, sex, profanity, etc. That said, he still recognizes that the new implementation would "constrain the industry which looks to reach the largest audience possible."