Celebrities. Cigarettes. Smoking.

I have come across over a couple of things about celebrities smoking cigarettes that can be categorized neither as absurd nor as strange. They are not even funny, though. Fine, here we go.
1. There are celebrities, especially movie stars, that smokes on screen like they are addicted but aren’t in actual place.
2. Smoking celebrities, sometimes sports stars, endorse cigarettes very rarely, if ever; but they are declared smokers in their private lives with some needing to have a drag in between shots.
3. Celebrities raising their voices in support of smoking cessation movements of course draw big attention but are rarely taken seriously.
4. Celebrity smoking influences adolescents to follow suit. Youngsters want to replicate their demigods.
5. Celebrities of the bygone era have remote chances of having picked up the habit watching their heroes.

Well, these are just some of my gibberish talks that I guess might have crossed everyone’s minds. But is it true that celebrities really desist from endorsing cigarettes of all hues? Is it because they are conscious of their social responsibilities? Of course, I, for one, want to believe this line. Pictures of celebrities smoking appear glamorous and civilized, regardless of the context of the scene in a movie and thus it strikes a cord with teens. They are shown at parties with a cigarette which pushes young people to emulate them. The brands they smoke, cheap Marlboro cigarettes, Camel, Winston, Virginia Slims, Salem etc, become a point of campus discussion.

There are two prominent websites dedicated to smoking celebrities; rather one is a yahoo group. These are definitely not promoted by any of them but their fans who also are into smoking. These two sites list smoking stars from real life and on screen. The website I stumbled upon is on female celebrities who chain smoke on screen. You get a blow by blow account of ‘when and what’ they smoke and in which movie! Wow, so much to that!

How does it all relate to the rest of us? After all, we only get to see one face of them, enjoying a good smoke. Do we come to know of their efforts to keep fit or do we know that not many of them are smokers at all? Well, do you want to emulate them – then ponder these points, too.
1. Can you afford 40-60 Marlboro cigarettes a day if you don’t buy them from a tax free online store or a discount sale?
2. Cheap cigarettes at discount price may be an option but is it a license to smoke more?
3. Many celebrities only smoke socially; they just don’t like to be left out because they don’t smoke.
4. Celebrities can easily afford high cost healthcare, just in case.

Neither cheap discount cigarettes of reputed brands nor generics bought at cheap price tobacco shop can be castigated as being cheap quality. Most of these generics and branded cheap cigarettes are regulated in their respective countries of manufacture and because of price and tax difference between your and origination country that they become cheap. Cheap Marlboro cigarettes, however guaranteed they are, are not your insurance to smoke more. Neither menthol nor Lm falls into the category, for that matter. The bottom line is here: celebrity endorsement or not, cheap or not, cigarettes are always known to give smokers a momentary relief but a long time trouble.