Noel King

You need something or you're just here to ruin one of the few things that still brings me a little joy in life.

We're seeing smoking pop up fairly prominently in all of those shows.

We also have it in movies as well.

A study from Truth Initiatives found that in 80% of the Oscar-nominated films for Best Picture in 2025, there was tobacco-related imagery.

Are people in your social circles actually smoking more?

Yeah, people in my social circles definitely smoke more.

I've even noticed a shift in that from kind of university to young adult life.

And maybe that's a testament to the stress of it.

I think there's something about the COVID lockdown era that maybe pushed people towards smoking, but both in terms of emotional response and that it's something to do in a situation that was intensely very stressful, but also because smoking really pushed people outside in their socialising.

Everyone had to do that sort of social distanced socialising in the park, which I think really

brought cigarettes back into the fold in a way in terms of like a social setting.

And then you sort of also, COVID's really associated with that

boom in wellness in a lot of ways.

Everyone was in their bedrooms with their yoga mats, doing their sort of ab workouts or their yoga or their Pilates.

And I think there is a real rise in smoking in terms of a response to the sort of matcha and Pilates of it all.

A phrase I see coming up on, am I allowed to swear?

Probably not.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Okay.