I’m obsessed with Bridgerton. Obviously, I love the Netflix show because of the wit, the spectacle, and the intrigue. But mostly because of the smoking. I talked about Bridgerton all the time when I helped people get free from cigarettes or vapes. Partly because a lot of people have watched it, but mostly because the smoking is regular as clockwork. It’s almost as if it’s been added at specific points to make you want to light up. I was excited when the second series came out. But, amazingly, there was less smoking. Which confused me until I discovered that in 2019 the British Medical Journal published an article showing that of the Netflix programmes they studied, 74% included smoking. Unsurprisingly, Netflix copped some criticism for this. They promised to tone down the smoking. Along came Bridgeton Series 2. They’d taken out some of the smoking—great. But they’d added some drinking – hmm. It got me thinking. Did Netflix swap smoking for drinking? Actually, it got me more than thinking. I started researching alcohol and Netflix. That’s my idea of science: research you can do while watching TV. As Netflix is always keen to suggest shows I’d like to watch, it was easy to pick 36 to study. They were all Netflix originals and rated 15 or 18. Once I’d selected the shows, I got to work (I use the word work loosely). 86.5% of the shows contained alcohol. That might not surprise you; as you know, we are bombarded with messages about alcohol all the time. But even if you know that, ask yourself: Did you notice all the drinking? What I have found is that the majority of people get so caught up in the drama that they don’t notice all the drinking or smoking. Which is interesting. Surely there’s no point in advertising something that no one notices? That intrigued me enough to ask a few more questions. Do companies really pay money to have their products subtly inserted into films and TV programmes? Of course, they do! You’ve heard of product placement, but have you ever wondered how it works?
