Country star Ella Langley, 27, smokes a cigarette in her music video for her song “Nicotine.”
Cigarette smoking among young adults has fallen sharply, from nearly 30% four decades ago to less than 10% in 2024.
Health officials remain concerned that smoking in music videos, movies and social media can influence young audiences, even when no tobacco company is involved.
The media has noticed the trend. “Why is Gen Z smoking?” asks People magazine. “Is Gen Z trying to make smoking cool again?” asks an article in Paper magazine. “They know it kills you. Gen Z is smoking cigarettes anyway,” notes The San Francisco Standard.
To be clear, the number of young Americans smoking cigarettes is not currently rising. In fact, data show the long-term decline has been substantial.
In 1985, approximately 29.3% of Americans between 18 and 24 were current smokers, according to historical National Health Interview Survey data. By 2024, 9.6% of young adults ages 18 to 25 reported smoking during the previous month.
That works out to about 3.4 million young adults. While still a large number, the smoking rate is roughly two-thirds lower than it was four decades ago.
However, data often lags current trends, and growing attention on young smokers is no doubt of concern to public health officials who are trying to preserve decades of progress in reducing cigarette smoking among young Americans.
Reemerging in pop culture
While smoking mostly disappeared from popular culture decades ago, 27-year-old country music star Ella Langley has written and recorded a song entitled “Nicotine.” In the music video below, she smokes a cigarette.
The cigarette imagery fits country music’s long association with bars, drinking, heartbreak and rebellion. However, it’s been largely absent from the work of younger performers. Public health leaders have taken notice.
"From Ella Langley’s music video to Kylie Jenner’s recent Instagram posts, we are seeing a growing trend where cigarettes and smoking are being pushed as ‘cool’ again,” Dr. Matthew D’Urso, clinical director at Renaissance Recovery, told ConsumerAffairs.
“From a public health perspective, that is very concerning. A lot of hard work has been done over the last few decades to shift the narrative away from smoking being a trendy aesthetic to highlighting the reality of what it actually does to your health.”
There is no evidence to suggest that one appearance by a popular performer will lead to a smoking revival. However, federal health officials have concluded that tobacco imagery in entertainment can affect young people’s attitudes toward smoking.
Dr. Ayesha Bryant, clinical advisor at Alpas Wellness, located in Maryland, takes some comfort in the fact that smoking rates have declined drastically in recent years.
“That being said, there does seem to be growing evidence that cigarettes and other forms of tobacco are becoming increasingly glamorized in popular culture through fashion, music videos and social media, which could potentially influence youth attitudes toward smoking,” Bryant said.
The Surgeon General has said that tobacco advertising, promotion and depictions of smoking in movies are causally related to youth tobacco use. Public health researchers worry that repeated images can make cigarettes look fashionable, rebellious or socially acceptable—particularly when they are associated with celebrities admired by younger audiences.
Cigarette smoking has fallen sharply
Cigarette use among teenagers has fallen even further. In 2024, only 1.4% of middle and high school students reported smoking cigarettes during the previous 30 days—the lowest rate recorded by the National Youth Tobacco Survey.
CDC officials called the overall decline in youth tobacco use an extraordinary public health achievement. However, they cautioned that more than 2 million middle and high school students still used at least one tobacco product.
Another concern is that some people who avoid cigarettes during adolescence begin smoking after turning 18.A National Cancer Institute study found that, among people who had tried cigarettes by age 22 or 23, the proportion who first smoked between ages 18 and 23 rose from about 20% in 2002 to more than 42% in 2018.
Among those who became daily smokers, the share making that transition during young adulthood increased from approximately 39% to nearly 56%.
Researchers stressed that the shift did not mean smoking was becoming more common overall. Instead, initiation was occurring later among the smaller population that did take up cigarettes.
That finding has led health officials to argue that smoking-prevention campaigns should not end when teenagers graduate from high school.
Vaping is the larger concern
Cigarettes are no longer the most common source of nicotine among young adults. In 2024, approximately 8.3 million people ages 18 to 25 reported vaping nicotine during the previous month—more than twice the estimated number who smoked cigarettes.
The CDC says nicotine is highly addictive and can harm the developing brain, which continues maturing into a person’s mid-20s.
For health officials, the concern surrounding celebrity smoking imagery is less about evidence of a new cigarette epidemic and more about preventing a reversal. Cigarette use has reached historic lows, but millions of young people remain exposed to nicotine—and popular culture can still influence whether smoking is viewed as dangerous, outdated or glamorous.