On the silver screen, about half of all movies that made their debut last year included appearances of cigarettes, cigars and other tobacco products, up 10% from the previous year, according to a new report from public health nonprofit Truth Initiative and research organization NORC at the University of Chicago.<\/p>\n
With more actors, pop stars and other celebrities spotted unapologetically smoking, the cultural taboo against it shows signs of ebbing. That worries antismoking advocates, who fear a reversal of the yearslong decline in U.S. smoking rates.<\/p>\n
\u201cI find that concerning, glamorous, attractive people smoking cigarettes,\u201d said Ollie Ganz, an assistant professor at the Rutgers School of Public Health, whose research focuses on tobacco.<\/p>\n
While U.S. smoking rates are hovering at their lowest level in decades, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has previously said that smoking in movies contributes to increased smoking rates among young people. \u201cYouths heavily exposed to onscreen smoking imagery are more likely to begin smoking than are those with minimal exposure,\u201d a 2019 CDC report found.<\/p>\n
Roughly one in three cancer deaths<\/a> in the U.S. are linked to cigarette smoking, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Federal health officials have linked smoking to more than 30 diseases and health conditions<\/a>, including heart disease, stroke and asthma.<\/p>\n Since the early 2000s, antismoking campaigns have flooded television and phone screens, and for years celebrities and high-profile individuals generally shunned smoking\u2014at least in public. Former President Barack Obama was criticized<\/a> by health advocates for smoking, and confessed he had struggled to quit<\/a>. Actor Sean Penn caught flack for lighting up during a 2018 appearance on \u201cThe Late Show.\u201d<\/p>\n The tobacco industry introduced new ways to ingest nicotine. Vaping, considered less harmful than smoking cigarettes, has become the most commonly used tobacco product among youth<\/a>, according to the CDC. Nicotine pouches have also gained some popularity.<\/p>\n To some, cigarettes now have a retro appeal.<\/p>\n Maddie Bell, a 21-year-old college senior in New London, Conn., said she grew up knowing the risks of smoking. By the time she was in high school, cultural figures like the Strokes\u2019 Julian Casablancas had her intrigued. \u201cCigarettes looked cool,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Bell picked up smoking over the past year, she said, sharing cigarettes with friends after weekend parties. Following a semester in Europe earlier this year, her occasional weekend cigarette became a routine.<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s when I went from being drawn to nicotine to it becoming a real habit,\u201d Bell said. Her favorite brand is Marlboro, but she said she prefers Natural American Spirit\u2019s roll-your-own tobacco because it is cheaper.<\/p>\n Jared Oviatt, who runs an Instagram account called @cigfluencers, has been chronicling celebrities smoking since 2021. He said he started the account because he and his friends always thought smoking cigarettes was cool.<\/p>\n \u201cI would argue antismoking campaigns were too effective,\u201d said Oviatt, who said he buys a pack every few months. \u201cThat paved the way for vaping. When vaping became uncool, it paved the path for cigarettes.\u201d<\/p>\n Oviatt said he started the account after seeing a photo of British singer Dua Lipa smoking. He recently featured a shot of Lily Allen smoking in a nun outfit, along with Charli XCX and her husband sharing a smoke at a restaurant after their wedding, still in their formal wear. Oviatt\u2019s caption: \u201cThis is my royal wedding.\u201d<\/p>\n The account now has 83,700 followers. Oviatt said that over a 30-day period he found the audience for his account was focused in New York City and London, and that it was 70% female.<\/p>\n On Saturday nights in the East Village, Columbia University graduate student Amira Hakimi often sports platform Dr. Martens boots, a sparkly top and her pink Bic lighter<\/a>. The 22-year-old said she smokes twice a month, usually after long nights of partying.<\/p>\n \u201cYou step out of the bar, you feel all that cold air, and it\u2019s quiet,\u201d Hakimi said. \u201cThat\u2019s the moment that everyone\u2019s like, \u2018Oh, we should smoke a cig.\u2019 \u201d<\/p>\n To Hakimi, vaping is corny. \u201cSmoking cigarettes is a very timeless act,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Smoking rates in the U.S. over the past several years have hovered around their lowest levels in eight decades, with 11% of Americans reporting that they smoked a cigarette in the prior week, according to a Gallup report. Younger Americans are even less likely to light up, according to the survey. In recent years an average of 6% of adults under 30 reported recently smoking, versus 35% in surveys from 2001 to 2003.<\/p>\n \u201cCigarettes are dangerous. The nicotine addicts people and then it\u2019s the smoke that kills them with heart disease, lung disease and cancer,\u201d said Dr. Nancy Rigotti, a Harvard Medical School professor and a director of tobacco research at Massachusetts General Hospital. \u201cWe have such good data from a couple decades ago that having celebrities smoking and smoking in movies really was a model that led to smoking in young people.\u201d<\/p>\n Big tobacco companies, including Altria, said that they regularly track instances where their cigarette brands are used in movies and other media, sending cease and desist letters. Reynolds, which produces cigarette brands including Camel and Newport, said it has a strict policy barring use of its products in movies or television shows.<\/p>\n Altria, which produces Marlboro through its Philip Morris USA subsidiary, said that it regularly encourages smokers to pivot to products other than cigarettes. Reynolds said it doesn\u2019t encourage consumers to start using tobacco products, including cigarettes.<\/p>\n For Matthew Daniel Siskin, a creative consultant who has worked with craft cigarette brand Hestia, younger\u2014though still legal-age\u2014consumers are among the brand\u2019s top customers. Hestia\u2019s cigarettes, derived from American-grown tobacco and bearing the tagline \u201cNaked, Wild, Tobacco,\u201d are popular with younger smokers.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s something about smoking out of my window,\u201d said Siskin, 43, who works with artists and musicians. \u201cIt\u2019s what we did before we looked down at our phones. You\u2019d say \u2018Hey do you have a light, do you have a cigarette?\u2019 \u201d<\/p>\n Bell, the college senior, said she now smokes one or two cigarettes a day. \u201cFor me, a huge part of why I\u2019m into smoking is because it\u2019s a very social thing.\u201d<\/p>\n Ideally, Bell said, she would quit. \u201cBut I guess it\u2019s a habit. It\u2019s hard to kick.\u201d<\/p>\n Write to Laura Cooper at laura.cooper@wsj.com<\/a> and Terell Wright at terell.wright@wsj.com<\/a><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.hindustantimes.com\/ht-img\/img\/2025\/11\/24\/550x309\/im-65146997_1763953471866.jpg\" "\\"A")
<\/span> A still of Sabrina Carpenter smoking a cigarette in her \u2018Manchild\u2019 music video. <\/p>\nSmoke break<\/h3>\n
\u2018Something about smoking\u2019<\/h3>\n