Listen to this article
Estimated 5 minutes
The audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology. Mispronunciations can occur. We are working with our partners to continually review and improve the results.
Dua Lipa in the streets of Italy. Charli XCX at her wedding. Singer Clairo snapping selfies. Heated Rivalry stars Connor Storrie and Hudson Williams out on the town.
These are just a few of the world’s biggest celebrities who’ve recently appeared in dozens of photos on Instagram and TikTok, looking impossibly cool while doing something notoriously unhealthy: smoking cigarettes.
“It’s almost like they’re glamorizing smoking again,” said Carolyn Baglole, an associate professor with McGill University’s department of medicine.
But even with celebrities caught puffing and influencers hyping the habit, data suggests tobacco use has long been trending downward. Still, if we want it to stay that way, experts say online content glamourizing the habit shouldn’t be ignored.
A global study led by a University of Waterloo researcher found that many smokers worldwide are still unaware of the dangers of tobacco use. The study followed around 240,000 people from 46 countries over two decades. Geoffrey Fong, the principal investigator of the International Tobacco Control Policy Evaluation Project and a professor at the University of Waterloo, explains his research.
No amount of smoking is safe: experts
Dedicated accounts to smoking culture have popped up online, including @cigfluencers, which boasts more than 100,000 followers on Instagram and posts pictures of celebrities smoking.
Meanwhile, posts normalizing “cigs” abound online.
Like the one that jokingly declares cigarettes don’t count if you smoke them with your morning coffee or overseas. In another video, a woman defends influencer Alix Earle for smoking a cigarette with the caption, “Let a girl smoke a cheeky cig!” In another, the content creator says cigarettes don’t count “if you’re in the middle of writing.”
However, experts warn that this is the kind of behaviour that can lead to addiction.
“Nicotine is so highly addictive,” said Rob Cunningham, a senior policy analyst with the Canadian Cancer Society. “A small number of cigarettes can lead to addiction and cravings.”
According to Health Canada, tobacco use is the leading preventable cause of premature death in the country, and can lead to more than 40 debilitating and potentially fatal illnesses, including cancers and heart disease.
That hasn’t stopped some people from posting about trends like “social smoking” — the practice of only smoking with friends or peers — while others even claim that smoking could “cure the loneliness epidemic” or help people make friends.
Though some of these posts may be facetious or played off as jokes, experts told CBC News no amount of smoking is safe.
“Even smoking socially, you don’t want to risk a nicotine addiction,” Baglole said. “If that happens and you become a life-long smoker, the risk of developing a chronic disease such as lung cancer, is so much higher.”
Jared Oviatt is a smoker who runs the @cigfluencers account. Despite the popularity of his content, he previously told CBC Life that he doesn’t believe we’re in a smoking renaissance.
“I don’t see the comeback of cigarettes in celebrity culture as a true return to smoking as a mainstream habit,” Oviatt said.
“Are we seeing it more often? Yes. However, I also think we’re already nearing the peak of that trend.”
Smoking on a downward trend
Cunningham confirmed that smoking isn’t on the rise, at least not yet.
“So far, we have not seen an increase in smoking and that’s good,” he said.
Recent data from the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health shows a significant downward trend between 1999 and 2025. For students in grades 7-12 in Ontario, smoking tobacco cigarettes decreased from 28.4 per cent in 1999 to 3.5 per cent by 2025.
According to the federal government, smoking rates have steadily declined across the country. About 300,000 Canadians who smoked in 2023 reported that they quit smoking in 2024, with just 11 per cent of adult Canadians reporting smoking that year.
“We want to keep that trend going downward,” Baglole told CBC News. “I would hate to see that trend reversed in any way and in any age demographic. Smoking is just so bad for you.”
A new law in the United Kingdom will ban purchasing tobacco smoking and vaping products to everyone born on or after Jan. 1, 2009, meaning affected age groups face a lifetime ban. The law is due to receive royal assent next week.
Cunningham says the habit damages teeth, skin and causes bad breath.
“It’s also very costly once you’re addicted,” he said. In Canada, a pack of cigarettes can cost anywhere from $14 to $26 Cdn.
He also warned that the content on social media that glamourizes smoking is harmful.
“The positive depictions by influential people on social media is extensive and concerning,” he said.
“Actors or influential people or celebrities do have influence — outsized influence — on the people they’re exposed to.”
Cunningham says he believes celebrities and influencers have a responsibility to protect their fans.
“They wouldn’t want their kids or grandkids to smoke, and they should realize their behaviour can influence vast numbers of young people.”
