Gen Z & the Smoking Comeback: Why Cigarettes Are Cool Again

Growing up in Manhattan’s Upper East Side, Aitana V. remembers being a young girl and not seeing anyone from her school or in her community smoke. If the topic of cigarettes even came up, “we talked about it as something horrible because we were little,” she remembers. But when Aitana’s parents moved the family to Spain in 2020, the teen was confronted with a different reality. Whereas smoking was largely off the radar for New York City teenagers, Aitana found that in Europe, “there’s a lot of smoke culture, especially at an earlier age.”

Now 16 and rounding out the remainder of her high school years in Barcelona, Aitana travels home often. It was during one of those recent trips back home that the native New Yorker came face-to-face with a surprising shift. “A lot of teens are [smoking],” she says. “I was under this impression that it was just a thing that was more common [among] teenagers in Europe. And it’s actually crazy to see how much it’s become something in New York, too. It’s become more normalized.”  

The New Normal?

Aitana links the shift in attitude toward smoking to a resurgence of imagery across popular culture. “I see smoking a lot, especially in TV shows targeted for my generation, Gen Z,” she explains. “When you see characters that you relate to, or influencers that you look up to, and they’re living a great life, and they’re fine, and they’re super happy … then a teenager will probably think to themselves ‘Well, it can’t be that bad if this person is doing it’ or if it’s no longer taboo.” And that broad acceptance, she says, is what influences youth, because they start to disregard all the negative things they’ve heard about it and start thinking that it looks cool.

Jessica Rath, PhD, a behavioral scientist at Truth Initiative, sees this spike in depictions of smoking in shows and social media as a real threat that can undo years of progress in bringing down smoking levels among youth. Sitting in her office in Washington D.C., she boils down the issue. “Tobacco imagery on screens causes youth tobacco initiation,” she says. “We knew this from early research on movies, and now we know it’s true for streaming shows, too. Youth are three times more likely to start vaping when exposed to tobacco imagery.” 

That concern about the proliferation of unhealthy images is backed by Truth Initiative’s latest research. According to their 2025 “Lights, Camera, Addiction: How Persistent On-Screen Tobacco Imagery Continues to Fuel Nicotine Addiction Among Young Audiences” report, in 2023, “seven of the top 15 shows most popular among 15- to 24-year-olds in 2023 displayed tobacco.” Of those shows, only one had not appeared in the organization’s previous reports and included series such as The Simpsons, Family Guy and American Dad, “underscoring how tobacco imagery remains a persistent problem.” 

Pop Culture as a Mirror

So why are images of smoking resurging? Dr. Rath points to the proliferation of always-available streaming platforms and content, especially during and after the pandemic. “People are binge-watching, and have so much more access now than they ever used to,” she explains. More than a third of 15-to-24 year-olds reported seeing tobacco imagery on YouTube, content that is often unregulated and easily shareable. 

Per Truth Initiative’s report, 70 percent of the top, “binge-watched” shows included tobacco imagery (up from 64 percent in 2022) and nearly a quarter of “chart-topping songs with music videos featured tobacco in their videos.” Though tobacco imagery in those top-chart music videos had actually come down from a high of 30 percent, “[V]ideos were viewed almost 5 billion times on YouTube as of October 2024.” With that kind of reach, even a small percentage of smoking content in music videos can translate into massive exposure, and more dangerously, into influential content over young viewers.

The more mainstream smoking becomes in the content that young people consume, says the health advocate, the more it chips away at the progress that public health investments gained over the past two decades. “The fear is that it’s going to reverse the progress we’ve made because of the glamorization,” says Dr. Rath.

Mike Seilback, National AVP for State Public Policy at the American Lung Association, agrees: “We had really done a lot of great work fighting efforts to glamorize smoking. And now we’re seeing an increase — especially in streaming shows, where smoking is portrayed not just by villains or troubled characters, but as an everyday behavior.” 

Glamorization, or the act of making smoking appear cool and meaningful, is perhaps the biggest obstacle to keep teens from lighting up. Back in the 1990s, anti-smoking activists would reach out and partner up with leadership from the five major film studios to curb on-screen smoking. But with the rise of streaming content, influencers on social media and a de-centralized media environment, harnessing the support of today’s new media leaders is nearly impossible. 

What Teens Are Saying

“I think this is because [smoking] is becoming a norm again,” says Evan A., 19, from Rhode Island. “Pop culture is reflecting what is happening in contemporary society.”

“You wanna look cool. You don’t wanna have your hands empty,” says Connor, 19. “Alcohol doesn’t resonate as much with younger audiences, so if you don’t drink, what are you gonna do?” Connor is a sophomore at a university in Texas, and he points to platforms such as Instagram and TikTok, where he’s seeing trending content about phenomena such as “drunk cigs,” a Gen-Z term for smoking while under the influence of alcohol. Therefore, the thinking goes, it’s not really considered smoking or “hitting the cart,” which is slang for smoking a cannabis vaporizer. “I wouldn’t say [social media] is pushing content, it’s not pushing the drug on you,” explains the 19-year-old. “But the content creator is posting that hoping that it’s relevant to their viewers.”

Dr. Rath links this resurgence to glamorization: “It’s trendy again. It’s throwback cool. Celebrities like Jeremy Allen White [The Bear] and Charli XCX holding cigarettes on-screen or on social media are basically unpaid spokespeople for the tobacco industry, whether they know it or not.”

From Cigarettes to Vapes to Props

While Connor doesn’t think TV or social media are pushing nicotine or drugs on viewers, the question remains whether teens are influenced by who smokes on-screen and how it’s portrayed. One Gen-Z intern working in New York City says she’s “seeing more people posting with joints (marijuana), which I used to not see as often” on social media. “I think that for some people, smoking is a bit performative, even if they aren’t regular smokers. I’ve heard many people say ‘drunk cigs don’t count’ and they’ll post themselves at a party smoking purely for the aesthetic.”

So whether teens are smoking only at parties or with regularity, the normalization of the habit is unmistakable. “When a famous actor holding a cigarette doesn’t feel weird or out of place,” Seilback warns, “that’s step one in normalization. That’s when it starts to feel natural for teens, which increases risk.”

While some teens actually smoke, others are just posing. “I’ve seen people hold a vape or cigarette at parties just to fit in,” Aitana says. “Sometimes they’re scared to actually try it but want to look a certain way.” Evan, 19, from Rhode Island, confirms: “Yes, I have seen people post with cigarettes, even if they don’t smoke them. It’s about the image.”

Is Vaping a Bigger Threat?

While cigarettes are making a visual comeback, vaping is the habit that’s entrenched. “Vaping is directly targeted at kids,” Aitana says. “There are bright colors, rainbow flavors, even vapes with screens you can play games on. It’s literally branded to be exciting and fun.”

Dr. Rath adds that dual use is growing rapidly. “In 2024, a third to a half of e-cigarette users aged 18 to 24 were also using another nicotine product. It’s not just vaping anymore. We’re seeing a rise in both smoking and vaping at the same time.”

What Actually Works

So what can stop teens from smoking? Just be honest, says Connor: “They make your teeth yellow, your breath stinks, they’re expensive. Some people won’t even like you for it.”

Monse, 17, from Manhattan, agrees: “Talk about the effects it has on your health. It’s a big deal for just five minutes of satisfaction,” says the high school Junior.

“It’s much more effective if a teen tells another teen not to smoke. Most of the people I know who vape now grew up with parents and school presentations telling them not to do it, but they still did it anyways,” says the anonymous intern from New York City. “I think it’s a lot more impactful to hear a peer tell you not to smoke because they understand where you’re coming from and tell you, firsthand, the side effects of smoking, which some parents might not know about if they’ve never smoked. I think the best way to convince teens/youth not to smoke would be to teach them about the side effects academically, then have a peer who smokes tell them about all the downsides, and then create a safe environment where smoking is collectively viewed as uncool.”

Dr. Rath couldn’t agree more about peer stories making the biggest impact. “When a peer tells you, ‘I used to vape and it ruined my health,’ that’s more powerful than any adult warning.” She also recommends Truth Initiative’s nicotine-quitting resource, the EX Program. “It was designed with, and for, teens. It’s free, it’s personalized, and it increases the odds of quitting by up to 40 percent.” The program is available both online and via text. To get enrolled, a teen can simply text “DITCHIT” to 88709. Texting is in their culture, explains Dr. Rath, and it’s available in a format that’s natural to them.

Policy and Prevention

Seilback and Rath both advocate for policy change. Seilback says, “Studios should police themselves. There’s just no reason to glamorize tobacco use anymore.” Dr. Rath, who explains that Truth Initiative is targeting lawmakers to create policy that protects young people’s health, wants pre-roll prevention ads before any tobacco-depicting content. “We already do this for suicide prevention and domestic abuse. Tobacco should be no different.”

Smoking might not be surging statistically, but culturally, it’s back on the radar. And for a generation fluent in irony, aesthetic, and image, that matters. The challenge isn’t just keeping kids from smoking. It’s helping them think critically about what’s being glamorized — and why. Because in 2025, a cigarette may be just a vibe. But sometimes, that’s all it takes.