The Appeal of Smoking

People who publicly attack the smoking habit commonly define what they believe is the general attraction to smoking.  Unfortunately they – like most critics of the public in general – have underestimated the public’s perception and intuition. 

The positive characteristics they have assigned to smoking are rather sophomoric if not juvenile.  They apply common adjectives, such as: glamorous, sexy, tough, rebellious, and dangerous.  These adjectives represent the attributes they see in images used by the marketers of cigarettes.  These adjectives all define very shallow characteristics, and are a representation of the shallow opinion the critics have of the American people at large.  Cigarettes have proven appealing and even addictive to people from all stripes: rich, poor, educated or not, laborers, and professionals.  Have all of these people been taken in by the same shallow appeal?  The shallow characteristics commonly assigned to smoking are the same ones promoters attempt to apply to many products, but few others have proven to be so irresistible.

It’s the addictive nature of the drug you say?  Many studies have shown that the addictive power of nicotine has been over estimated, and is completely out of the body after two weeks.  The true attraction of smoking is mental.  The mind is the answer, in fact.

Nicotine stimulates brain activity, but not the in same way as caffeine.  It actually raises your IQ score a little.  It helps your brain function more efficiently.  It promotes thought.  Smokers and the public at large have known this for decades, at a conscious level for many and at a subconscious level for most. 

Think about the images of people smoking that come to your mind.  Workers take a smoke break to clear their heads and refocus; a cluster of cold-war era mathematicians sleeplessly working in front of a chalkboard on some enigmatic code, all smoking cigarettes in endless succession.   We subconsciously associate smoking with thinking because we understand that it promotes thought.  When we see a couple cowboys leaning on a fence silently enjoying a cigarette, we aren’t thinking to ourselves ‘they look tough’ or ‘they look sexy.’  We’re subconsciously thinking that they look thoughtful.  Thoughtfulness makes people interesting because we curious humans can’t help but wonder what they’re thinking about.  What are those cowboys thinking about after a long day?

Try this: imagine a man in dirty clothes walking along the sidewalk.  Visualize him in your mind.  At a subconscious level, your brain immediately applies several suppositions to the character you imagined.  Did you imagine him to be poor, possibly homeless?  Did you suppose that he is walking because he doesn’t have a car or possibly a license to drive?  Now picture him again smoking a cigarette while he walks.  Did you immediately imagine him to be walking faster?  Now you may see him as a construction or factory worker walking home from a hard day’s labor.  Why did you elevate him?  You elevated him because he now appears thoughtful, and thoughtful people are generally better occupied.

It is the brain stimulant that is addictive.  We like being thoughtful and we love looking thoughtful.  Many products can make you look sexy, or dangerous, or rebellious.  Few products can make you look thoughtful, and thereby interesting.  That is the magnetic power of smoking.

You should also know that smoking doesn’t increase your chances of poor health. It’s guaranteed.  Every cigarette destroys your body and reduces your longevity from several directions.  It may benefit your brain in the short term, but it destroys your organs in the long term.  The only uncertainty is how soon the accumulated damage will radically change or terminate your life.  Regardless of how it may look or feel, smoking isn’t smart.