The Generation That Will Always Be Too Young to Smoke

"A new law in the U.K. bars young people from buying cigarettes for the rest of their lives. For the British government, even a sixty-year-old will someday be underage."

"Cigarettes are, notoriously, cool, but the coolness isn't evenly distributed. France has a whole stable of glamorous black-lunged icons: Albert Camus and Jean-Paul Sartre, Brigitte Bardot and Catherine Deneuve, Serge Gainsbourg, Coco Chanel. Americans have James Dean and Kurt Cobain. In Britain, where I grew up, we got Kate Moss, and that was about it. The iconic British smokers are all older, paunchier types, and most of them went for something with a bit more gravitas than a cigarette. Winston Churchill with his cigars; J. R. R. Tolkien with his pipe."

"These people had something, but it wasn't cool. There are very few teen-agers desperate to look like Bertrand Russell. Even the cigarette brands are a little grotty. Philosophers have Gauloises and rock stars have Marlboro Reds, but a Benson & Hedges is smoked by a balding man in a carpeted pub, slowly turning his teeth the same color as his pint of warm ale. Today, the most prominent cigarette smoker in British public life is Nigel Farage, the leader of th"

A new U.K. law bars young people from buying cigarettes for the rest of their lives. The policy is framed around the idea that smoking initiation often happens in childhood, even though children are not supposed to smoke. The habit is described as something the tobacco industry depends on, with younger starters being more desirable. Smoking is portrayed as unattractive to adults because it is costly and harmful, but appealing to children for reasons tied to desire and perceived benefits. The text also contrasts cultural images of smokers across countries, noting that British cigarette icons are older and less glamorous, while cigarette brands are depicted as unappealing. It argues that smoking’s “coolness” is unevenly distributed and that public life still contains prominent smokers.

Read at The New Yorker