News Summary

• Smoking is becoming a casual signifier of "cool" in film, TV and music.
• Instagram accounts like @Cigfluencers curate photos of pop stars and actors smoking.
• Many non-smoking millennials are surprised by Gen Z’s embrace of smoking, if only because of how taboo it became in the last few decades.
• Adult smoking rates fell from 42.4% in 1965 to 9.9% in 2024; adults aged 21–24 had the highest e-cigarette usage rates.