Cigarettes Cool Again?

Rihanna filming her new music video

When I was a sophomore in college, I lived an apartment with a Russian model for a roommate.  OK, she was more like an aspiring model.  She was Kate Moss-skinny but had a certain sex appeal that men quickly surrendered to.  There was also something cool and glamorous about her.  It was something about her Russian accent and the way she would stand outside on our balcony leaning against the railing with a cigarette in her hand and the smoke along with her hair blowing in the wind.  She looked like something from a movie.  I had not known many smokers but from the ones I saw, I didn't get why it was once and still was at the time considered cool.  But she definitely looked not just cool, but glamorous and sexy doing it.  It made me want to try smoking one too ... until I remembered a certain reality.  Smoking can kill you.  There are so many ugly ways to suffer and die for such an absurd habit.  And there are so many other ways to look glamorous and cool that don't include addiction and chronic illness later in life.  I wondered why she had started smoking to begin with.  Maybe she herself had seen someone who just looked so damn cool doing it.  Maybe it was a parent, maybe a friend.  But here she was, young and gorgeous and addicted to cigarettes.
I have never been the type to throw caution the wind.  If there was any undesirable consequence of doing something, I was convinced I would suffer it.  Even if it was a 1% chance, I was convinced I would be in that 1%.  Maybe I'm a pessimist or I don't believe I have an luck at all.  Or maybe it's because I am a (self-diagnosed) borderline hypochondriac.  Whatever the reason, I have never so much as held a lit cigarette.
Now, I don't know if I'm the only person who's noticed but there is a disturbing new trend of cigarette smoking making a comeback in the media and being portrayed as cool, trendy or glamorous again.  Back in the day when smoking was portrayed on TV and magazines as cool, the hazards of smoking were largely unknown, or at least had not yet been pounded into our consciousness.  There were ads all over TV and in magazines up until well into the 90's when the government got involved.  I think there is still the occasional magazine ad with the usual Surgeon General warning but I can't tell the last time I saw an ad on TV.
I don't need to tell you all the hazards of smoking.  You already know.  We all know.  As a healthcare professional, I'm honestly alarmed to see the trend creeping its way back in.  Women who are unfortunately role models for children all over the world, not just in the US, are posing in ads looking cool, sexy and glamorous with a cigarette as an accessory.  The same cigarettes that are extremely addictive and extremely toxic. And most people are not  like me.  The cool-factor will often trump the obvious hazards.  It's just an ad, yes, but to a child, preteen or teenager, those ads are like the Bible.  That is to say, whatever Rihanna does, is cool.  They do not have the cognitive capacity to realize that they are not invincible to the hazards of smoking.  All they know is that it's cool because so and so is doing it.
I understand that being a role model to children is pretty much gone out the window to celebrities like Rihanna who have openly denounced setting an example for their peers and juniors.  I understand they just want to live their lives.  And if they choose to smoke themselves, that's fine.  And if they're caught by the paparazzi taking a drag, so be it.  But to do a photoshoot that deliberately shows you smoking a cigarette and making it look as cool as you possibly can, that's just beyond irresponsible!
I was most appalled by the picture below with Kate Moss smoking a cig on the runway.  Sure, children do not go to these fashion shows, but the photos wind up in fashion magazines and of course whatever is on the runway is automatically trendy, cool and glamorous.  I can only pray for the impressionable children and teens who will wind up with an addiction they can't control and suffer the consequences later in life.  I guess at the end of the day, it's up to you to know good from bad and the parents to do the best they can. 

Kate Moss's "smokin'" runway walk