Smoking is making a pop culture comeback, even as risks remain

Cigarettes are appearing more often in celebrity images and social feeds, while Canadian youth smoking rates have continued to decline and health experts say the health risks of cigarettes remain unchanged.

Smoking is reappearing in films, celebrity posts and social feeds as a visible aesthetic. The trend includes both long-associated stars and newer pop artists being photographed with cigarettes. This increase in visibility comes amid decades of anti-smoking campaigns and a long-term decline in tobacco use in Canada. Reporters and public health experts are discussing whether the resurgence is mainly an aesthetic phenomenon or could influence real-world behaviour. Key details: - Celebrities from older and newer generations are more frequently shown smoking, and films such as Celine Song's Materialists include glamorized smoking scenes. - Social media activity and real-world events have echoed the trend, including a November gathering in New York's Washington Square Park where more than 2,000 people joined a five-minute group smoke. - In Canada, youth smoking rates have been in steady decline since the early 2000s, but national figures cited in the article report that about a quarter of high school students vape every day. - Some people describe smoking as performative or a way to connect socially, and commentators say the image of smoking functions as cultural shorthand or a fashion statement. - Dr. Mark J. Eisenberg and other health experts are reported to say that cigarette harms remain a major drain on the health system and a leading modifiable risk factor for coronary disease, emphysema and lung cancer; Eisenberg is quoted as advising younger new smokers to quit as soon as possible. Summary: Smoking's renewed visibility in pop culture appears driven largely by aesthetics and social signaling, while public health experts emphasize that the medical risks of cigarettes have not changed. The reporting also highlights ongoing concern about youth vaping. Whether the cultural trend will translate into broader changes in smoking behaviour is undetermined at this time.