In 2024 Hollywood is attempting to make smoking ‘cool’ again.

The celebrities are trying to bring smoking back and we need to talk about it. Because it's everywhere right now.

Take, for example, those viral pictures of Paul Mescal, on the set of Gladiator II, smoking in full costume.

Or that recent interview with Shawn Mendes, where the 26-year-old singer said, "I romanticise getting a little older and a little scruffier and smoking a cigarette occasionally and being like, 'I've been through a couple of things, but not everything.'"

Dua Lipa has also recently been snapped smoking, as has Timothée Chalamet, Bella Hadid, Natalie Portman, Chloë Sevigny, Addison Rae, Margaret Qualley… we could go on.

Notably, there's also the hit FX series The Bear, where smoking is not only popularised by characters on screen, but in real life too. Jeremy Allen White, Ayo Edibiri and Ebon Moss Bachrach were recently captured taking a break from the LA premiere of season three, smiling and laughing while they puffed away on cigarettes.

The video was posted to a popular Instagram account called @cigfluencers, who have 57k followers. The account is an ode to the love of smoking, posting new and throwback pictures of celebrities lighting up.

Watch: What are the health impacts of vaping? Post continues below.

Their bio reads: "aka HOT PEOPLE keeping the art of SMOKING & BEING COOL alive…"

Its founder is someone called Jared Oviatt, who was recently interviewed by Interview Magazine. Here, he talked about his favourite cigarette brand (Camel, apparently), the best places to smoke (outside of a bar, he said) and his favourite 'cigfluencers' like actress Anya Taylor Joy, who is "just cool as f**k", with an "effortlessness that makes her smoking habits that much better and hotter."

On the most iconic moment in the history of 'cigfluencing', Oviatt said a paparazzi pic of Charlize Theron smoking weed through an apple while also holding a cigarette takes the cake. He added, "But Ben Affleck smoking through his mask in the height of the pandemic was awesome. "

His substack also has articles like: 'Is smoking only cool if you're hot', warning people upfront that the content heavily endorses smoking cigarettes. Here, he points to posts by stars like Dua Lipa, photo dumping pics of them smoking out at night at fabulous parties.

On a recent episode of The Quicky, host Claire Murphy delved into the comeback of cigarettes, from stars and non-celebs alike.

As she shared with listeners, "In magazines in the '90s you'd be hard-pressed to open the pages of a story about runway models like Kate Moss without seeing a cigarette clutched gracefully in hand. But for decades after, cigarettes became an absolute no-go zone, the habit considered dirty, disgusting, smelly, unhealthy, mainly seen nervously inhaled by drug addicts or gangsters in movies and on TV."

"Now though, in a twist that many of us didn't see coming, smoking seems to be making a pop culture comeback and it's definitely had an impact on younger Aussies with new data showing their smoking rates are the highest in the nation."

Listen to the full episode of The Quicky below, as Claire Murphy deep dives into why so many young people are drawn to smoking. Post continues below.

Fast forward to now, and the cigarette is slowly crawling its way back into mainstream media — and into the lives of young people everywhere.

Off the back of the entry gate of vaping, we're now seeing a resurgence in people lighting up on the big and small screens — and in 2024, smoking is becoming more popular than ever.

So, is smoking making a comeback?

On the show, Claire Murphy spoke with Laura Brodnik, who is Mamamia's Head of Entertainment and co-host of our daily entertainment podcast, The Spill.

When asked about pop culture's influence on the popularity of smoking, Laura said it is undeniable, especially with shows that have become the heroes of pop culture. The kinds of shows that fuel lots of discussions and have been big contenders at award shows.

Shows like the hit series, The Bear.

"Jeremy Allen White's character, Carmy, in The Bear is probably the character who's leading the charge of bringing smoking back into pop culture," she said. "His character has become one of those very iconic characters. It is very much known for either chain-smoking outside his restaurant or having a cigarette always in his mouth. Because he's become a very sexualised character, this behaviour is very much a draw card for that show. Smoking now seems cool again because it's on the most-watched show, on the most-awarded show on TV at the moment."

And this translates into real life, too.

"With Jeremy Allen White in particular — because he has become so famous and so beloved for this role — he does get caught by the paparazzi quite a lot in LA and there are so many iconic photos of him walking the streets, almost dressed like his character, with the muscle shirt and always with a cigarette dangling out of his mouth. So, that's become very much the look for both the actor and the character, and it's kind of brought smoking back into that very old-school 'bad boy' Hollywood way that did go out of fashion for a while but has now come back with this actor and this character."

On the movie screens, you've just got to look at the winners of the 2024 Oscars to see how prevalent the influence of smoking is.

"We saw a huge resurgence in smoking in all the top movies at the Oscars this year," said Laura. "All the movies that were up for Best Picture, all the top awards — with the exception of Barbie — we saw a resurgence in smoking with these characters."

Just look at Cillian Murphy in Oppenheimer, who smoked 3,000 cigarettes during the filming of that movie, to the point where he said he'd only play non-smoking characters because it nearly killed him.

As Laura added, "Many celebrities pick it up just for filming purposes. But also, because it is addictive, a lot of people who pick it up for their roles also talk about the fact that it's harder to quit afterwards, and it does pass over into their breaks, which is why there are so many photos of actors in Hollywood smoking on film sets or just on the street in between filming."

As Claire pointed out, we've also seen quite the resurgence of smoking in the fashion world.

With a push for the return of everything Y2k, at the recent London Fashion Week, we saw models walking the catwalk with cigarettes, either holding them or having them dangling out of their mouths.

So is it the nostalgic vibe around smoking that we're chasing? What's the appeal?

"You have a lot of old school celebrities who cross over between the pop culture world and the fashion world, like Gwyneth Paltrow," said Laura, "Who is known for living such a clean lifestyle, but also very infamously saying that she'll still enjoy a cigarette with her tofu. It's almost become the calling card for the 'cool girls' of Hollywood to regress back to smoking.

"For a long time, you would never see a top Hollywood actress smoking, even if their characters did. It was seen as breaking the barrier of what they were supposed to be doing. But now it's become very much the 'cool girl' thing — especially smoking in areas where they're not supposed to. For example, at the Met Gala, the event is no smoking. But back in 2017, we had that very infamous photo go viral from the Met Gala bathroom of all the models and all the fashion girls and all the actresses — everyone from Ruby Rose to the Hadid sisters and Dakota Johnson — all smoking in the bathroom. And that photo actually gained so much more traction than any of the red-carpet photos."

"Even the Olsen twins, who have moved over from being actresses to being at the very top of the fashion world, have brought smoking back in. There have always been photos of them walking the streets of New York with their oversized coffee cups and their cigarettes. And even now, the only time we see them outside their fashion shows or outside their business, they're out in the street smoking. It's become that signifier that they're almost pushing against Hollywood, and it's become the ultimate 'cool girl' thing."

There are also celebrities such as Rosalia, who was rumoured to be dating Jeremy Allen White, being recently pictured attending Charli XCX's birthday party with a cigarette bouquet.

"Rosalia is another one of those 'cool girls' who is often seen smoking on the set of her music videos or in the street — and yes, she brought that big cigarette bouquet to Charlie XCX's birthday. From the photos we can see inside Charli's birthday, smoking was pretty much the main activity. So it's really made a resurgence with the younger music crowd in particular."

So is it just a fad? Or is it going to be around for a while?

"The fact that it seems to be as popular with some of the older stars as the younger stars in Hollywood, does make me think that it is going to be around for a while," said Laura. "For some reason, it just 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."

"Of course, that all comes back to the fact that way back in the 1920s when Hollywood first started making movies, their biggest advertisers were tobacco companies, and so that's why there was so much smoking in movies. But even though that has stopped now and there are different regulations, it has still continued to be seen in a desirable light."

What's happening in Australia?

As outlined on The Quicky, new research shows Gen Z, who are currently aged 16 to 24, have the highest daily smoking rates, with The Wesfarmers Health Index finding Gen Z smoke more than any other age group, with 13 per cent inhaling cigarettes on a daily basis.

So what happened to undo decades of anti-smoking campaigning?

One word: Vaping.

In recent times big tobacco companies made a tactical move — with teenagers and young adults top of mind. And it makes sense — younger adult smokers are the only replacement, and a few years ago the demand for cigarettes just wasn't there.

On The Quicky, Claire spoke with Carly Dober — the Director of the Australian Association of Psychologists about why young Aussies are getting back into smoking.

She said, "I think are a few reasons, but I think the most important or strong one is research from the Australian National University found out that when young people take up vaping, they are three times more likely to take up smoking cigarettes. So I think in large part it's the uptake of vaping that's become almost ubiquitous with young people."

In 2019, Philip Morris International — the biggest tobacco company in the world and the most popular brand worldwide — announced: "We've made a dramatic decision. We are building PMI's future on smoke-free products that — while not risk free — are a far better choice than cigarette smoking."

As we've since learnt, this is not the real motive, with medical experts branding vaping just as bad (if not worse) than smoking cigarettes.

While vaping has seemingly been portrayed as the safer and cleaner way to 'smoke', medical experts, including The Australian Health Protection Principal Committee (AHPPC), have since proven the long-term health dangers of e-cigarettes on young people.

As Dober said, "I think we can't underestimate the power of marketing. And if we think about the early vape companies and how aggressive they were in marketing, particularly to young adults and teenagers. I mean, for all the willpower and education that you have, the human brain can't fight that. We've got aggressive marketing campaigns that, again, made vapes ubiquitous, that made them cool, that made them the new 'thing' to do."

"We also have people taking up vaping, and then cigarette smoking when they're trying to manage things like social anxiety or stress in ways that aren't the most informed and healthy. But people will turn to whatever they can, and then you also have peer pressure. If all of your friends are vaping, especially when you're a teenager and developing your independence, friendships are really important to you. Do you risk losing your friends or being excluded if you say no, I don't want to? I think it's really difficult to say no and to abstain from that."

The crackdown on vaping in Australia was very widely publicised, with new regulations meaning you could only get a vape in a pharmacy if you're over the age of 18, and in some instances, only on prescription.

However, as Claire pointed out, when you're faced with a shortfall in being able to access vapes that you may have been using for a year or two or longer, naturally that sense of hopelessness may cause younger people to turn to smoking.

Because the fact is, vaping is way more addictive and damaging than many of us have been led to believe.

Leading nicotine addiction specialist Professor Renee Bittoun told Mamamia in an interview here that there is an incredible amount of misinformation surrounding vapes, including the effects they can have on teenagers and young adults.

"There are all different types of e-cigarettes on the market, but the most contemporary ones have become so good at delivering nicotine right down deep into an area of the lungs — which hasn't happened in the past. They're more advanced than the older styles, which delivered nicotine into the upper airways," Professor Bittoun said.

"So, when you have it down in the depths of your lungs, that's where your arteries and arterial blood is picking up oxygen — now it's picking up nicotine, instead. They're now incredibly efficient. The speed of delivery of nicotine is massive, and it makes it much more addictive."

In 2019, a world-first study, published in the European Respiratory Journal, compared the effects of cigarettes and vaping on human cells. It was found that electronic cigarettes are as toxic as tobacco cigarettes and can cause significant lung damage.

"Celebrities really do set the mold for things like being cool," said Dober. "They're a cultural moment. Whether it's a particular artist or a particular model, this is part of their behaviour that you want to emulate, especially when you're an impressionable teenager, and it becomes really hard to turn that down. Young people might not understand the reasons that some celebrities are taking this habit — maybe some are sponsored, maybe some are trying to suppress their weight because they're managing an eating disorder — but all the young people see are cool celebrities smoking."

As Claire Murphy shared, "There is also a theory that some Gen Z's 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. 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."

Whichever way you want to look at it, if you think of Big Tobacco, the new buzz around cigarettes is more than ideal for them. Whether you're a celebrity or not, with 'old smokers' drying up, they've essentially just gained a whole new group of consumers — for life.

What do you think of the rise of cigarettes? Share your thoughts in the comment section below.

Feature image: The Bear.