WASHINGTON -- According to a new survey, 81 percent of adults in the United States agree adolescents are more likely to smoke if they watch actors smoke in movies, and 70 percent support a new R-rating for any movies with on-screen tobacco imagery, unless the film clearly demonstrates the dangers of smoking.

The Social Climate Survey of Tobacco Control is an annual poll of public attitudes about tobacco control policies. The American Medical Association (AMA) Alliance, the 26,000 grassroots arm of the AMA, joined researchers from Mississippi State University's Social Science Research Center to make the announcement during the AMA's National Advocacy Conference in Washington, D.C.

According to the report, public concern over the issue of tobacco imagery on screen has grown substantially over the past year:
-- Support for an 'R'-rating for movies with tobacco that fail to portray its health risks jumped nearly 12 percentage points between 2005 and 2006.
-- Two-thirds of adults want movie theaters to show anti-tobacco spots before any film with tobacco images, up more than 5 percentage points from the year before.
-- More than 60 percent of adults want tobacco branding out of all movie scenes, a rise of nearly seven percentage points from the previous year.

In 2005, one-in-six top-grossing U.S. movies showed or mentioned an actual tobacco brand. Two out of three U.S. live action movies featured tobacco in 2006, including 68 percent of PG-13 films.