Tobacco in cinema has "never been so present" and encourages young people to smoke, denounces a study

Is cinema an ally of smoking ? Nearly one in two young people between the ages of 15 and 25 say that seeing tobacco on screen encourages smoking, according to a study published Wednesday by the Alliance Against Tobacco (ACR), which RMC has revealed.

A day after the opening of the Cannes Film Festival , the association revealed that smoking in films doubles the risk of starting to smoke. "Smoking on screen has never been so present, even though we are in a context where in France we have never smoked so little," explains the ACR. 23% of French people are regular smokers, according to an Ifop study from February 2025 .

This year, 80% of the works nominated for the Oscar for Best Picture and more than half of the series targeting young people contained scenes of smoking.

"Young people these days are quite impressionable. Seeing characters in TV shows they like smoking can make them think, 'Why not give it a try? It looks cool?'" observes Woudé, a high school student.

L'amour ouf , Anora , the 2024 Palme d'Or winner which contains 14 minutes of cigarettes on screen, Stranger Things , whose season 2 has 260 smoking scenes... So many works where cigarettes play a leading role. "In the space of less than ten years, we have seen that the presence of smoking scenes has quadrupled among the most popular series among young people. This is considerable," notes Marion Catellin, director of the Alliance Against Tobacco.

In the association's study, 72% of ex-smokers say that these scenes rekindle their desire to smoke. As soon as Mike, who quit six months ago, sees a smoking scene, it "makes him want to smoke." "I still have that stylish vision. Thomas Shelby in Peaky Blinders , a glass of whiskey, a cigarette: it makes you want to smoke," the 24-year-old laments.

Even for those who still smoke, like Jérémy, these scenes always awaken the desire: "As a smoker, when you see someone smoking, you say to yourself 'ah, a little cigarette, why not?' It's becoming so common to see people smoking in these films that in the end it's become normalized."

To combat this phenomenon, the Alliance Against Tobacco hopes to work with the cultural world to establish a charter on smoking on screen. Smoking remains the leading cause of preventable death in France, with 75,000 deaths each year, or 13% of total mortality.