AMAA Alliance - Screen Out Campaign. Get Involved

Letters: Send Hollywood A Message. It is as simple as 1…2…3

The easiest way to be involved in "Screen Out!" is by writing a letter to the chiefs of the six largest studios, the MPAA and the theatre owners in your community.

Three giant media companies (Time Warner, Disney and Sony) produce more than half of all movies with smoking. If these companies choose, they could stop producing and distributing youth-rated films with smoking tomorrow. To convince movie studios to keep smoking out of youth-rate movies, we need to squeeze from both ends: from the top of their own corporate ladder and from the theatre chains that sell their product to the public.

All major Hollywood studios (like Warner Bros.) are owned by a parent company (i.e. Time Warner). These parent companies own lots of other media - cable channels, television networks, satellite services, magazines and newspapers you may buy every day. The way to change how studios behave is through their parent organizations. The same goes for your local movie theatre. Almost all movie theatres belong to regional or national chains.

To change how studios behave, take these four steps:

Write one letter, on your letterhead, to the chief executive of the top six media studios. Copy this letter to Hollywood's lobbying group, the MPAA. Use this form to create your own letter.
Write a second letter to the local theatre where you and your family watch movies. Copy this letter to the theatre chain's headquarters and to the theatre's trade association, the National Organization of Theatre Owners (NATO). Use this form to create this letter.
Have a letter writing party at your house one evening. Host friends around the dining room table with snacks while all penning individual letters to the 6 largest media studios. Feel free to use the general letter in step one as your guidelines for writing.
Be sure to e-mail a description of your activities or send a copy of your letter to the AMA Alliance national office so that we can add your voice to others from around the country.