Advocacy Group Says There's Too Much Smoking in Netflix Shows

You'll never guess the worst offender.

A view of Netflix logo.
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NEW YORK, NY - JANUARY 31: A view of Netflix logo on school lockers at Netfix's 'Everything Sucks!' series premiere at AMC 34th Street on January 31, 2018 in New York City. (Photo by Noam Galai/Getty Images)

A view of Netflix logo.

The anti-smoking group Truth Initiative has a bone or two to pick with Netflix. The watchdog organization says that the platform’s original shows have the most smoking depictions, citing 319 “tobacco incidents.” That’s more than double that of cable TV shows. This is all according to a study the group released on Friday.

Oddly enough, Truth Initiative says Season 1 of Stranger Things clocked in with the most hits (pun intended)—182 of them to be exact. Kind of wack for a show about kids, TBH. The second worst offender was AMC’s The Walking Dead, which featured 94 tobacco incidents. Coming in third, fourth, fifth, and sixth place are Netflix’s Orange is the New Black, House of Cards, Fuller House, and Making a Murderer. Yikes. In a comment to Variety, Netflix said, “While streaming entertainment is more popular than ever, we’re glad that smoking is not. We’re interested to find out more about the study.” It’s worth noting that Orange Is the New Black and House of Cards are both rated TV-MA, so in theory, the youngsters of whom Truth is weary getting exposed to this content shouldn’t be tuning in anyway. Unfortunately, the same can’t be said of shows like Fuller House, which is rated TV-Y7 (appropriate for audiences over the age of seven).

According to Truth Initiative, depictions of tobacco use are a lot more prominent on digital content than they are on cable. And that’s not a good thing, considering younger people are gravitating more towards digital platforms these days. Robin Koval, CEO and president of Truth Initiative, said in a statement that the rise of streaming services has given way to “a pervasive reemergence of smoking across screens that is glamorizing and renormalizing a deadly habit to millions of impressionable young people.”

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