Is smoking making a comeback?
6/9/202624 min
Smoking cigarettes is cool again. Apparently. Social media and accounts online are raving about the habit, turning it into a trend with images from celebrities and appealing to Gen Z. But this rebirth in popularity runs counter to widespread anti-smoking campaigns warning about the dangers of getting addicted and the health effects of cigarettes. Where did this cultural resurgence for smoking and vaping come from?
Dr. Robert Schwartz is a senior scientist at the Centre for Mental Health and Addictions and the executive director of the Ontario Tobacco Research Unit. His research focuses on public health policy and tobacco control. He’ll talk about smoking rates in Canada and how a pop culture trend may be obscuring the real threat.
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Clips
Transcript preview
First 90 secondsCheryl Sutherland· Host0:03
There's a term blowing up with a certain segment of Gen Z online, cigfluencer.
Jared Oviatt· Soundbite0:08
A cigfluencer i- in, in few words is a hot person making smoking look cool.
Cheryl Sutherland· Host0:15
Yes. Apparently smoking cigarettes is back.
Jared Oviatt· Soundbite0:19
You know, my friends and I, you know, we kept saying to each other, "Oh, cigarettes are so cool. They're so cool." It's like there's this idea that something so self-destructive can be seen as a, a positive in, in a weird way.
Cheryl Sutherland· Host0:29
Jared Oviatt runs an Instagram account that is a collection of images and videos of celebrities smoking in public, like Canadian actor Hudson Williams and his Heated Rivalry co-star Connor Story, as well as musicians Charli XCX and Clairo. The account is appropriately named, you guessed it, cigfluencers, and it has over 100,000 followers.
Jared Oviatt· Soundbite0:53
There's this idea that everything [laughs] seems to be going downhill and, and becoming increasingly digitized, so everyone is living their life on, on a computer or through their phone, and cigarettes are almost like a physical manifestation of touching grass, trying to get back in touch with a time where things weren't so online.
Cheryl Sutherland· Host1:13
And it's not just celebrities taking part. Gen Z has flocked to social media to show off their new aesthetic hobby. This might be a surprise after years of work trying to get people to stop smoking. So what's going on?