{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,10,1]],"date-time":"2026-10-01T18:05:15Z","timestamp":1790877915920,"version":"4.1.0"},"reference-count":43,"publisher":"BMJ","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,30]],"date-time":"2026-09-30T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1790726400000},"content-version":"unspecified","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-nc\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"DOI":"10.13039\/100020082","name":"Center for Biomedical Informatics and Information Technology","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["R01CA268491"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["R01CA268491"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/100020082","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":["bmj.com"],"crossmark-restriction":true},"short-container-title":["Tob Control"],"accepted":{"date-parts":[[2026,6,11]]},"abstract":"<jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Background<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>Despite the 1998 ban on paid product placement by the tobacco industry, branded tobacco products continue to appear in media.<\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Methods<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>\n                      Using the popular streaming series\n                      <jats:italic>Stranger Things<\/jats:italic>\n                      as a case study, this paper identifies potential motivations of content producers for including branded cigarettes in their work by analysing how the products function in the series.\n                    <\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Results<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>These include enhancing verisimilitude, character development and serving as action props to anchor and advance a narrative.<\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Conclusions<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>Since the use of branded tobacco products appears to be firmly entrenched in Hollywood as a storytelling device, policymakers should consider mitigating the negative effects of repeated tobacco depictions on young people by requiring advisory warnings and or promotion of cessation resources before and after movies or series episodes that depict tobacco use. In addition, raising critical public awareness of the issue may encourage content creators to reconsider the necessity of tobacco depictions and explore more creative alternative narrative-advancing devices rather than reifying smoking behaviour.<\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>","DOI":"10.1136\/tc-2025-059910","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,10,1]],"date-time":"2026-10-01T17:25:59Z","timestamp":1790875559000},"page":"tc-2025-059910","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1136\/crossmarkpolicy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["Why are branded cigarettes in streaming media? A case study of Netflix\u2019s\n                    <i>Stranger Things<\/i>"],"prefix":"10.1136","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0009-0006-0838-8961","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Peter","family":"Kovacs","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Center for Tobacco Control Research and Education, University of California San Francisco, San Francisco, California, USA"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-3324-2183","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Ruth E","family":"Malone","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Social and Behavioral Sciences, University of California San Francisco, San Francisco, California, USA"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-6166-9347","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Pamela M","family":"Ling","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Center for Tobacco Control Research and Education, University of California San Francisco, San Francisco, California, USA"},{"name":"School of Medicine, University of California San Francisco, San Francisco, California, USA"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"239","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,10,1]]},"reference":[{"key":"2026100110201525000_tc-2025-059910v1.1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"106169","DOI":"10.1016\/j.ypmed.2020.106169","article-title":"Exposure to tobacco content in episodic programs and tobacco and E-cigarette initiation","volume":"139","author":"Bennett","year":"2020","journal-title":"Prev Med"},{"key":"2026100110201525000_tc-2025-059910v1.2","first-page":"243","article-title":"Here\u2019s smoking at you, kid: Has tobacco product placement in the movies really stopped","volume":"2","author":"Adler","year":"1999","journal-title":"Mont Law Rev"},{"key":"2026100110201525000_tc-2025-059910v1.3","unstructured":"Public Health Law Center . The master settlement agreement: an overview. 2019. Available: https:\/\/www.publichealthlawcenter.org\/resources\/master-settlement-agreement-overview-2015 [Accessed 17 Oct 2025]."},{"key":"2026100110201525000_tc-2025-059910v1.4","unstructured":"The Truth Initiative . While you were streaming: lights, camera, addiction. 2025. Available: https:\/\/truthinitiative.org\/research-resources\/tobacco-pop-culture\/lights-camera-addiction [Accessed 17 Oct 2025]."},{"key":"2026100110201525000_tc-2025-059910v1.5","unstructured":"Netflix . \u201cStranger Things\u201d by the numbers: how the global phenomenon shaped culture. 2025. Available: https:\/\/about.netflix.com\/en\/news\/stranger-things-by-the-numbers-a-phenomenon-shaped-by-friendship-adventures [Accessed 28 Apr 2026]."},{"key":"2026100110201525000_tc-2025-059910v1.6","unstructured":"Stoll J . Fanbase of stranger things in the United States by age. 2022. Available: https:\/\/www.statista.com\/statistics\/1358725\/fanbase-stranger-things-united-states-age\/x [Accessed 28 Apr 2026]."},{"key":"2026100110201525000_tc-2025-059910v1.7","unstructured":"Maglio T . \u201cStranger things\u201d: 15.8 million watched season 2 premiere. 2017. Available: https:\/\/www.thewrap.com\/stranger-things-2-tv-ratings-netflix-nielsen\/ [Accessed 28 Apr 2026]."},{"key":"2026100110201525000_tc-2025-059910v1.8","unstructured":"Passy C . \"Stranger Things 4\" product visibility is worth up to $25 million for Coke, Jif and other brands. 2022. Available: https:\/\/www.marketwatch.com\/story\/stranger-things-4-product-visibility-is-worth-up-to-25-million-for-coke-jif-and-other-brands-11654190732 [Accessed 17 Oct 2025]."},{"key":"2026100110201525000_tc-2025-059910v1.9","unstructured":"The Truth Initiative . While you were streaming: smoking on demand. 2019. Available: https:\/\/truthinitiative.org\/research-resources\/tobacco-pop-culture\/while-you-were-streaming-smoking-demand [Accessed 17 Oct 2025]."},{"key":"2026100110201525000_tc-2025-059910v1.10","unstructured":"Kreps D . Netflix to cut down on smoking after \u201cStranger Things\u201d leads tobacco use study. 2019. Available: https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/tv-movies\/tv-movie-news\/netflix-smoking-stranger-things-tobacco-study-856130\/ [Accessed 28 Apr 2026]."},{"key":"2026100110201525000_tc-2025-059910v1.11","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1016\/j.jbusres.2013.11.014"},{"key":"2026100110201525000_tc-2025-059910v1.12","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"323","DOI":"10.1080\/02650487.1999.11104764","article-title":"The influence of product-placement type & exposure time on product-placement recognition","volume":"18","author":"Brennan","year":"1999","journal-title":"Int J Advert"},{"key":"2026100110201525000_tc-2025-059910v1.13","first-page":"301","article-title":"Is Hollywood turning films into commercial speech?","volume":"301","author":"Snyder","year":"1992","journal-title":"U Ill L Rev"},{"key":"2026100110201525000_tc-2025-059910v1.14","unstructured":"Cerullo M . \u201cStranger Things\u201d season 3 product placement boosts relevance for hundreds of brands. 2019. Available: https:\/\/www.cbsnews.com\/news\/stranger-things-turns-upside-down-the-business-of-product-placement\/ [Accessed 17 Oct 2025]."},{"key":"2026100110201525000_tc-2025-059910v1.15","unstructured":"Haigney S . How products became the new TV stars. 2022. Available: https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2022\/06\/24\/arts\/anatomy-of-a-product-placement.html [Accessed 17 Oct 2025]."},{"key":"2026100110201525000_tc-2025-059910v1.16","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"3","DOI":"10.5406\/19346018.74.1.2.01","article-title":"Stranger Things, nostalgia, and aesthetics","volume":"74","author":"Griffith","year":"2022","journal-title":"Journal of Film & Video"},{"key":"2026100110201525000_tc-2025-059910v1.17","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"136","DOI":"10.1353\/itx.2017.0006","article-title":"Nostalgia, fantasy, and loss: Stranger Things and the digital gothic","volume":"21","author":"Landrum","year":"2017","journal-title":"Intertexts"},{"key":"2026100110201525000_tc-2025-059910v1.18","unstructured":"Twomey R . Competing nostalgia and popular culture: Mad Men and Stranger Things. In: Uncovering stranger things: essays on eighties nostalgia, cynicism and innocence in the series 2018. McFarland and Company, Inc, 2018: 39\u201348."},{"key":"2026100110201525000_tc-2025-059910v1.19","unstructured":"Cabalerro V . The nostalgia generation: romanticizing the past to capture the attention of young consumers. 2020. Available: https:\/\/www.forbes5.pitt.edu\/article\/nostalgia-generation [Accessed 11 May 2025]."},{"key":"2026100110201525000_tc-2025-059910v1.20","first-page":"347","article-title":"A history of the concept of branding: practice and theory","volume":"4","author":"Bastos","year":"2012","journal-title":"J Hist Res Mark"},{"key":"2026100110201525000_tc-2025-059910v1.21","unstructured":"Leiss W , Kline S , Jhally S , et al . Social communication in advertising: consumption in the mediated marketplace. New York: Routledge, 2005."},{"key":"2026100110201525000_tc-2025-059910v1.22","unstructured":"Dewhirst T . Tobacco marketing and public policy in Canada, 1960-2002: the role of sponsorship [Ph.D. Dissertation]. The University of British Columbia, 2003 81."},{"key":"2026100110201525000_tc-2025-059910v1.23","unstructured":"Burnett L . The Marlboro story: how one of America\u2019s most popular filter cigarettes got that way. The New Yorker 1958;41\u20133."},{"key":"2026100110201525000_tc-2025-059910v1.24","unstructured":"Pollay RW . The role of packaging seen through industry documents. Expert report prepared for: JTI-Macdonald, Imperial Tobacco Canada Ltd and Rothmans, Benson & Hedges Inc. v. Attorney General of Canada and Canadian Cancer Society (Intervenor). Supreme Court, Province of Quebec, District of Montreal. Defense Exhibit D-116. 2001."},{"key":"2026100110201525000_tc-2025-059910v1.25","unstructured":"Martineau P , American Association of Advertising Agencies . Papers from the 690000 A.A.A.A. Region conventions: how an agency builds a brand\u2014the Virginia Slims story. UCSF Industry Documents Library, Philip Morris Records, Master Settlement Agreement; 1970. Available: https:\/\/www.industrydocuments.ucsf.edu\/docs\/jmnb0122\/"},{"key":"2026100110201525000_tc-2025-059910v1.26","unstructured":"Camel brand review -- Spring. UCSF Industry Documents Library, Joe Camel Collection; 1980. Available: https:\/\/www.industrydocuments.ucsf.edu\/docs\/trhh0045\/ [Accessed 18 Oct 2025]."},{"key":"2026100110201525000_tc-2025-059910v1.27","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.2105\/AJPH.94.2.192"},{"key":"2026100110201525000_tc-2025-059910v1.28","unstructured":"NW Ayer + Son, Printers Ink . Peace rides on sweptback wings. UCSF Industry Documents Library, Lorillard Records, Master Settlement Agreement; 1954. Available: https:\/\/www.industrydocuments.ucsf.edu\/docs\/tscf0191\/ [accessed 18 Oct 2025]"},{"key":"2026100110201525000_tc-2025-059910v1.29","unstructured":"Social Research, Inc . The full-flavored, low-tar cigarette market: Vantage and Merit brand images. UCSF Industry Documents Library, RJ Reynolds Records, Master Settlement Agreement; 1981. Available: https:\/\/www.industrydocuments.ucsf.edu\/docs\/fjnb0086\/ [Accessed 18 Oct 2025]."},{"key":"2026100110201525000_tc-2025-059910v1.30","unstructured":"Burnett L . UCSF Industry Documents Library, Philip Morris Records, Master Settlement Agreement, 1955. Available: https:\/\/www.industrydocuments.ucsf.edu\/docs\/fggv0130"},{"key":"2026100110201525000_tc-2025-059910v1.31","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"526","DOI":"10.1177\/1097184X12461917","article-title":"From the physician to the Marlboro Man: Masculinity, health, and cigarette advertising in America, 1946\u20131964","volume":"15","author":"White","year":"2012","journal-title":"Men Masc"},{"key":"2026100110201525000_tc-2025-059910v1.32","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1177\/1097184X09352177"},{"key":"2026100110201525000_tc-2025-059910v1.33","unstructured":"Lund CP . Lights, camera, action!: the role of product placement in the advertising industry. Unpublished master thesis . University of Texas at Austin, 1999"},{"key":"2026100110201525000_tc-2025-059910v1.34","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"378","DOI":"10.1136\/tc.8.4.378","article-title":"Hollywood on tobacco: how the entertainment industry understands tobacco portrayal","volume":"8","author":"Shields","year":"1999","journal-title":"Tob Control"},{"key":"2026100110201525000_tc-2025-059910v1.35","unstructured":"National Association of Attorneys General . The Master Settlement Agreement. 1998. Available: https:\/\/www.naag.org\/our-work\/naag-center-for-tobacco-and-public-health\/the-master-settlement-agreement\/ [Accessed 11 May 2026]."},{"key":"2026100110201525000_tc-2025-059910v1.36","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","DOI":"10.1136\/bmjgh-2020-003639","article-title":"Tobacco imagery in entertainment media: evolution of tobacco-free movies and television programmes rules in India","volume":"6","author":"Yadav","year":"2021","journal-title":"BMJ Glob Health"},{"key":"2026100110201525000_tc-2025-059910v1.37","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"752","DOI":"10.1093\/ntr\/ntad260","article-title":"Tobacco imagery in Indian Over-the-Top (OTT) media and Its compliance with existing tobacco laws: A content analysis","volume":"26","author":"Pulicherla","year":"2024","journal-title":"Nicotine Tob Res"},{"key":"2026100110201525000_tc-2025-059910v1.38","unstructured":"FDA . Cigarette labeling and health warning requirements. 2025. Available: https:\/\/www.fda.gov\/tobacco-products\/labeling-and-warning-statements-tobacco-products\/cigarette-labeling-and-health-warning-requirements [Accessed 11 May 2026]."},{"key":"2026100110201525000_tc-2025-059910v1.39","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1136\/tc.2009.030684"},{"key":"2026100110201525000_tc-2025-059910v1.40","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1136\/tobaccocontrol-2011-050023"},{"key":"2026100110201525000_tc-2025-059910v1.41","unstructured":"Keveney B . Netflix vows to go \u2019smoke-free' in shows like \"Stranger Things\" aimed at kids and teens. 2019. Available: https:\/\/www.usatoday.com\/story\/entertainment\/tv\/2019\/07\/02\/tobacco-images-rise-tv-targeting-youth-study-says\/1613329001 [Accessed 17 Oct 2025]."},{"key":"2026100110201525000_tc-2025-059910v1.42","unstructured":"Spangler T . Netflix to cut smoking from youth-targeted content after criticism. 2019. Available: https:\/\/variety.com\/2019\/digital\/news\/stranger-things-netflix-smoking-reduce-depictions-1203258913 [Accessed 17 Oct 2025]."},{"key":"2026100110201525000_tc-2025-059910v1.43","unstructured":"The Truth Initiative . While you were streaming: tobacco\u2019s starring role. 2023. Available: https:\/\/truthinitiative.org\/tobacco-starring-role [Accessed 17 Oct 2025]."}],"container-title":["Tobacco Control"],"original-title":[],"language":"en","link":[{"URL":"https:\/\/tobaccocontrol.bmj.com\/syndication\/doi\/10.1136\/tc-2025-059910","content-type":"unspecified","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"syndication"},{"URL":"https:\/\/syndication.highwire.org\/content\/doi\/10.1136\/tc-2025-059910","content-type":"unspecified","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"similarity-checking"}],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2026,10,1]],"date-time":"2026-10-01T17:26:06Z","timestamp":1790875566000},"score":1,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"https:\/\/tobaccocontrol.bmj.com\/lookup\/doi\/10.1136\/tc-2025-059910"}},"subtitle":[],"short-title":[],"issued":{"date-parts":[[2026,10,1]]},"references-count":43,"alternative-id":["10.1136\/tc-2025-059910"],"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1136\/tc-2025-059910","relation":{},"ISSN":["0964-4563","1468-3318"],"issn-type":[{"value":"0964-4563","type":"print"},{"value":"1468-3318","type":"electronic"}],"subject":[],"published":{"date-parts":[[2026,10,1]]}}}