The Revival of Cigarettes in Gen-Z Music Brands
Artist Lana Del Rey Smoking a Cigarette, Credit: Lana Del Rey
From selfies on Dua Lipa’s Instagram, to being the main attraction in Charli xcx’s visual brand, having features on Malcolm Todd’s bedside, a grand contributor to Lana Del Rey’s “cool girl” aesthetic, and uplifted by lyrical glorification in Addison Rae’s “Headphones On” (where, she sings, “need a cigarette to make me feel better”), cigarettes have been making a comeback in the pop culture scene and it’s raising some eyebrows. Why is it resurfacing now? How did it come about?
Perhaps for most of my childhood (albeit, yes, I’m still a child but on a turning leaf towards 18), I’ve always felt that the surrounding public stigmatized the use of cigarettes. I was one of those children who would hold my breath while walking past adult smokers, afraid of the smoke blackening my lungs. Adults around me would scrutinize smokers, proclaim their horror to me, and vividly, I even remember my grandma visibly cringing as she slowly sat down beside a heavy smoker in the trains of Tokyo, where bad smokers’ breath does not fit the social expectations of possessing hygiene. And, by the time I reached middle school and took your typical American Health class (which comes with totally not awkward conversations like puberty), there was only ever an emphasis on not vaping, while cigarettes were hardly mentioned. It seemed that the National Health Education Curriculum stopped caring about cigarettes. They were not a real threat to Gen Zs or Gen Alpha. They were in the distant past before people even realized that maybe cigarettes weren’t so healthy.
Yet, even with such conceptions of cigarettes and Gen-Z, why is it that so many Gen-Z celebrities are more commonly showing cigarette usage? Why aren’t they facing wide-scale backlash or “cancelling” as they would’ve during the peak of the Tobacco Control Movement? It seems that cigarettes are now even more popular than ever. But, is this really true? And, what’s truly leading to this increased spotlight on Malboros?
Popular Star, Doechii, Seen Smoking a Cigarette, Credit: Bloomberg
Personally, the Gen-Z cravings for nostalgia seem to ring a bell when researching this topic. Gen-Zers have grown up in an ecosystem of digital media and devices all around them. Technically, they are the first generation to grow up within this type of environment, and sometimes there may be a longing for things that feel more real and not perfected for a screen. Cigarettes, oddly enough, seem to embody that exact imperfection. On Pinterest boards, they’re praised for their personality: gritty, analog, rebellious, cinematic, and possibly a vintage Hollywood look. In an era where every image is filtered, every caption is carefully optimized, and every influencer is expected to present a hyper-clean alternate version of themselves, cigarettes feel natural and almost the exact opposite of what is expected of typical artists or humans in general.
So, when we talk about the visual appeals to the cigarette, it seems understandable why smoking imagery is becoming more and more prevalent among the artists who heavily lean into the aesthetics of authenticity or emotional messiness. Charli xcx’s entire BRAT era embodies this feeling. Whether you're blackout drunk, desperately insecure, or doing a “cigarette and coffee” diet, the relatability of imperfection and even being slightly gross behind the pretty mask is the thesis of the era. And, in such, maybe it’s even more appealing that cigarettes have generated a former theme of being unhealthy. Its use feels daring and breaking free of the specific social pressures that xcx so healthily explains in her album.
Popular Gen-Z actor, Hudson Williams, from Heated Rivalry seen smoking a cigarette, Credit: Alessandro Bermec
Yet, aren’t celebrities supposed to have influence that can change the consumer behaviors of their fans? With such an increase in this form of media, it’s astonishing to see that cigarette usage has barely increased amongst youth. In 2024, the CDC shared that the cigarette smoking rate among American youth is actually at its lowest recorded level in 25 years, with only 1.4% of students reporting current cigarette use. Alas, maybe the legitimate use of cigarettes is illegitimate, despite preaching authenticity through media culture. Subconsciously, there can still be a visual and rebellious appeal for music brands, but not a habit that translates to real life. With so many different algorithms and forms of entertainment too, it makes sense that there is not one media trend that is consistent amongst all consumers of media, because there is such a wide gap of media-consumption variety these days.
Ultimately, the return of cigarettes in pop culture says less about nicotine itself and more about the emotional atmosphere surrounding Gen-Z. It reflects a generation attracted to nostalgia and is rejective of surface-level perfection, and isn’t afraid to embrace emotions that feel raw, human, and imperfect. But its reappearance undoubtedly reveals something deeper about the current cultural moment: Gen-Z does not necessarily want to look healthy, polished, or perfectly optimized anymore. Increasingly, we want real.
