Hold the front page, smoking is normal
Thursday, March 18, 2021 at 10:14 Have you noticed how often headlines that accompany paparazzi photos of famous people focus on the fact that they are smoking?
Typical of the genre is 'Simon Cowell, 61, smokes a cigarette on a jet ski as he hits the beach with Lauren Silverman, 43, in Barbados' (Mail Online).
You could argue that it takes a special talent to smoke a cigarette whilst riding a jet ski but if I had a pound for every headline about a celebrity smoking I’d be rich.
Here's the latest example, published by The Sun yesterday:
'Queen bassist John Deacon, 69, puffs on a cigarette while out on a stroll in London'
Deacon is a famously reclusive former rock star who retired almost 30 years ago and is allegedly worth over £110 million.
Leaving aside the obvious invasion of his privacy (why can’t they just leave him alone?), it strikes me there are other headlines The Sun could have chosen.
Instead they highlighted the fact that he was smoking.
To be fair, neither the headline nor the story were in any way judgemental – it was simply a statement of fact – but the subs obviously thought it worth mentioning.
There are two ways of looking at this.
On one hand some in the media may be driven by a subconscious (or occasionally conscious) desire to shame 'celebrity' smokers for their habit.
One the other, what strikes me whenever I see these 'stories' is just how normal smoking still is. I'm only surprised tobacco control hasn't outlawed such reports.
After all, if there's one thing that confirms the normality of smoking – even in 2021 – it's the sight of an elderly but wealthy man puffing on a cigarette on the streets of suburbia.
It could be worse:
Holy smokes! Tiffany Trump is seen holding a VERY suspicious looking cigarette and a neon lighter on Miami balcony (Mail Online)
Reader Comments (2)
Perhaps if the anti smoker industry didn't advertise smoking and constantly keep it in the public eye then maybe it wouldn't be seen as headline news when an adult consumer is seen consuming a legal product. What next? Piers Morgan spotted eating a Twix while out with his mate Simon Cowell?
Worse are those who take it into school and bring the issue of smoking to the attention of young children - some of whom may not even know what smoking is if their parents don't smoke or, as a couple I know, only smoke when on a night out or when the kids are elsewhere.
With tobacco advertising banned everywhere, the only way kids learn about smoking is through anti smoker activists and paid for professionals who stick it right under their noses. Kids don't always process information as the puritans expect them to. See South Park, Butt Out, for reference.
Of course smoking is normal. It has been part of human culture for thousands of years even though Europeans did not learn of its joys, comfort and benefits until about 600 years ago. Even Europe's first smoker was executed for not quitting. Other punishments to force smokers to quit involved pouring hot lead down their throats.
If that didn't denormalise smoking in those early days, modern God fearing puritans, who treat health as a religion and smokers as blasphemers, have no chance.
Smoking is normal. Obsessive behaviour about health and zealous approaches to forcing people to quit are anything but normal.
Smoking is indeed normal. The only reason it is even commented on is that tobacco control activists have waged a concerted propaganda campaign aimed at denormalising smoking (and smokers). the result of that activism is the attachment of stigma on the act of smoking tobacco and on those that chose to smoke.