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Are cigarettes on trend again?

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Amid the resurgence of smoking among celebrities and influencers, a recent study shows that 57 per cent of young people think it’s fashionable, despite the risks being so well-known.

Of every trend to make a comeback, smoking was an unlikely contender.

It’s 2024, after all, the year that saw efforts to address nicotine addiction take centre stage.

In the UK, Labour has banned disposable vapes and moved to prohibit anyone from lighting up outdoors.

In the rest of the world, governments have introduced bills to prevent young people from buying cigarettes and the tobacco industry has faced mounting pressure to limit its catastrophic environmental impact.

It isn’t just regulatory bodies determined to leave this behind, either.

Social media users have been echoing the same sentiment for some time now, with health-conscious Gen Zers in particular quick to call out those promoting the bad habit online.

This appears to have changed, however. According to a recent study, and despite the risks being so well-known (it’s still the leading cause of preventable death in Britain) 57 per cent of young people think that smoking is fashionable because celebrities and influencers do it.

The pivot from covert to overt displays of this in popular culture is to blame, with Charli XCX, Addison Rae, and Paul Mescal among the famous figures most at fault.

There’s Charli telling fans to pick up a pack of cigs if they really want to embody the Brat vibe. There’s Addison with not one but two in her mouth in her latest music video. And there’s Paul saying he refused to quit when getting into shape for an upcoming film after images of him lighting up outside a London pub went viral and became the ‘greatest cigarette propaganda’ since Mad Men’ as defined by journalist Hunter Harris.

Clearly, smoking is in again – but why? Arguably, its resurgence comes down to the fact that the stereotypical image of a smoker is no longer discomfort-inducing, but aesthetically infused with glamour, sophistication, and hedonism.

The @cigfluencers Instagram account is an ode to this, regularly posting new and old photographs of ‘hot people keeping the art of smoking and being cool alive’ to its 58.6K followers and counting.

‘It’s almost become the calling card for the ‘cool girls’ of Hollywood to regress back to smoking,’ says Laura Brodnik, Mamamia’s Head of Entertainment.

 

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‘For some reason, it never loses its cool factor. No matter how much we know about the health risks and the long-term damage, there’s just something about it that, in particular in Hollywood, has always been made out to be the epitome of cool.’

Representative of our collective nostalgia towards a bygone era of carefreeness that’s been slowly building as we grow tired of how overwhelmingly bad the state of things are at present, smoking’s re-entry into mainstream media isn’t all that surprising, but it is extremely problematic.

This being said, what’s interesting is that the number of young smokers continues to decline, with official estimates showing that there are fewer than one out of ten in the UK, a steep drop from a quarter of 18-24-year-olds a little over a decade ago.

On this note, and chiming with the notion that today’s youth are simply yearning for a nihilistic pre-social media age, it’s most likely not cigarettes that are being endorsed, rather (and somewhat ironically) the anti-capitalist attitude they convey.

‘There is also a theory that some Gen Zers are pushing back on wellness culture that has sold them solutions from every angle while they also witness older generations make decisions that negatively impact their futures,’ says Claire Murphy.

‘Perhaps smoking, despite all its unhealthiness, is a way of rebelling against a world that makes young people feel like they have no control over their destiny.’

Feature Media Manager & Senior Writer London, UK

Sofia (She/Her) – I’m the Deputy Editor & Media Partnership Manager at Thred, specialising in exclusive articles and live interviews, fashion and beauty with a focus on sustainability, women’s rights, psychedelics, and Latin America. I studied Spanish at the University of Exeter and International Journalism at City, London. Follow me on Twitter, LinkedIn, and drop me some ideas/feedback via email.

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