Is smoking glamorous again?

An increasing number of people, especially young individuals and celebrities, are reclaiming smoking as a glamorous act and a form of empowerment, almost as if it were a way to assert their identity. Cigarettes, in short, are regaining a certain allure, particularly in show business and the creative industries. Brands like Christian Cowan and LaQuan Smith had models walking with cigarettes in hand at this year's New York Fashion Week. Last summer, Charli XCX stated that to embody the “brat” style, you needed, among other things, a pack of cigarettes and a Bic lighter. Similarly, Rosalía attended the British singer's birthday party with a bouquet of flowers and cigarettes. Even Lady Gaga, on the cover of her recent single Die With A Smile, is depicted smoking a cigarette. The same goes for Addison Rae in the music video for her track Aquamarine, released at the end of October: speaking to Interview Magazine, the American singer urged people to smoke “real” cigarettes instead of electronic ones.

Interestingly, this trend is also spreading to the film and television industry, where smoking had long been considered taboo. In the United States, anti-smoking campaigns over the past 20 years had nearly eradicated cigarettes in Hollywood. In fact, smokers often avoided admitting it publicly due to growing stigmatization. Yet recently, Paul Mescal admitted that he refused to quit smoking while training for the filming of Gladiator II. Jeremy Allen White is also a regular smoker, both privately and in The Bear, as is Lily-Rose Depp, especially in The Idol. In the TV series Griselda, the protagonist smokes a cigarette in almost every scene.

Cigarettes are increasingly visible in movies

What’s changing compared to the past is the visibility of cigarettes in American films and TV series. Of the ten titles nominated for the 2024 Academy Award for Best Picture, nine included scenes featuring smoking – three more than the previous year. For example, in Oppenheimer, cigarettes appear in over 130 scenes, and during filming, Cillian Murphy revealed he smoked about 3,000 in total, joking that in his next film, he’d like to play a non-smoker. Among 2023 releases, Asteroid City by Wes Anderson had the most smoking scenes, with over 150 such shots. Back to Black, the biopic about Amy Winehouse, features around ninety smoking scenes, while Challengers includes 62. Bradley Cooper, in the biopic about conductor Leonard Bernstein, Maestro, smokes in nearly every scene. Likewise, in Saltburn, director Emerald Fennell set the story in a time before the UK’s indoor smoking ban to evoke the freedom and hedonism characteristic of those years.

The resurgence of cigarettes as a style accessory and symbol of allure is harder to understand in Italy – and Europe more broadly – where smoking is less stigmatized compared to the United States. Experts and organizations worry that the reemergence of cigarettes in mainstream media could spread the idea that smoking is cool, potentially undermining years of anti-smoking awareness campaigns. This phenomenon is also being fueled by Gen Z’s fascination with the 1990s, a decade when smoking was widespread and widely accepted. This has helped revive the sensual, melancholic, and vaguely nihilistic atmosphere typical of that era. A clear example is the success of Instagram accounts like Cigfluencers, which celebrates“hot people keeping the art of smoking & being cool alive.” Posts feature celebrities smoking, blending stars from the past – especially the 1990s – with today’s icons. Judging by the comments on the photos, smoking increasingly seems to be perceived as trendy, despite the well-known health risks.