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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

To think that smoking looks really, really cool?

169 replies

aperolspritzbasicbitch · 11/07/2026 17:53

To start, I know it’s not, I know it’s dangerous, I know it stinks and is a horrid habit. I’m not going to start.

but equally….I’d bloody love to take up smoking 🤣

I just think it can look so chic, especially the skinny little European cigarettes.

I love the idea of sitting out with a glass of something, puffing on a little cigarette.

having a mid morning coffee outside a cafe on a cobbled street, cigarette in hand.

Or, the original ozempic…a cigarette and a can of Diet Coke of lunch.

like I said, I’m not going to start, I don’t like the smell and I’ve also been very vocal on my views on vaping.

but, at the grand old age of 40, there’s still something about it that I look at sometimes and think ‘god, she looks cool’

Think Caroline Besette in Love Story.

OP posts:
PetuniaTabernacle1 · 11/07/2026 18:43

potterspot · 11/07/2026 17:57

Some people do make it look cool but I think it’s more of a case that they are already cool.

This.

People who look cool smoking look cool fullstop.

Iriseee · 11/07/2026 18:43

I fantasize about sitting outside a cafe, reading a novel, smoking a rollie and having exceptional thoughts. In reality thats probably a bit of a fire hazard and smoking is GRIM. But if it wasn't, I would. I'd also like to while away my evenings in a big chesterfield armchair with a whisky and a cigar. But unfortunatley I hate both.

movingmovingmovingish · 11/07/2026 18:42

As a smoker i think smoking looks hideous! I hide in my garden to have a ciggie and would do anything to turn the clock back and not have had my first cigarette.I would never glamorise it, it's a n addiction that I wish I had never tried 😔

aperolspritzbasicbitch · 11/07/2026 18:41

potterspot · 11/07/2026 18:37

@aperolspritzbasicbitchyou’re peer pressuring me.

Im actually quite surprised by some of the responses particularly when you compare it to the drug threads.

Well, if you want me (and you know how influential, cool and powerful I am) to think you are cool, you best spark up instantly 💁🏻‍♀️🤣🤣

I’m quite surprised too. Not at the people who don’t think it looks cool, obviously. But at the ones who purposely opened a thread about smoking, read the part when I said I know it’s dangerous, yet still comment about the health implications. We know. We ALL know.

OP posts:
Ibi · 11/07/2026 18:40

Yeah, I agree. It does look cool. I’ve always found the smokers to be the coolest and most fun.

potterspot · 11/07/2026 18:37

@aperolspritzbasicbitchyou’re peer pressuring me.

Im actually quite surprised by some of the responses particularly when you compare it to the drug threads.

ForeverNowWithin · 11/07/2026 18:34

I think the exact opposite. Always have done. It's revolting. And sad.

aperolspritzbasicbitch · 11/07/2026 18:33

Idlewilder · 11/07/2026 18:31

I just see a crippling and ruthless addiction. It took me so long to quit and I was so grateful when I got to the other side of it. I see people smoking now and I just think - thank God I don't have to do that any more.

I am old enough for the chickens to be coming home to roost for my contemporaries who were life long smokers and it is heartbreaking. Seeing the struggle to carry out everyday tasks with emphysema - just awful.

Quite an irresponsible post, really.

Because hoards of impressionable grown adults are going to take up smoking based on a couple of people on line saying it looks cool?
they’ll just bypass the ones that disagree and think ‘well, if Aperol says it’s cool, I must do it!’ Will they?

OP posts:
potterspot · 11/07/2026 18:33

@thejelliclecatsIm anti smoking but still think some people looked cool doing it.

potterspot · 11/07/2026 18:32

@thejelliclecatsthe smelly dc in my schools smelt of various things but not smoke.

Waheymum · 11/07/2026 18:31

It can look really cool (I always think Slash from Guns n Roses in his 20s) but, in reality, it's harmful to the health of the smoker and those around them, and people that smoke stink of cigarette smoke.

Idlewilder · 11/07/2026 18:31

I just see a crippling and ruthless addiction. It took me so long to quit and I was so grateful when I got to the other side of it. I see people smoking now and I just think - thank God I don't have to do that any more.

I am old enough for the chickens to be coming home to roost for my contemporaries who were life long smokers and it is heartbreaking. Seeing the struggle to carry out everyday tasks with emphysema - just awful.

Quite an irresponsible post, really.

thejelliclecats · 11/07/2026 18:28

potterspot · 11/07/2026 18:19

@TheLightSideOfTheMoonwhat does the token smelly child have to do with smoking?

Because they stank of stale cigarette smoke.

thejelliclecats · 11/07/2026 18:26

potterspot · 11/07/2026 18:17

@thejelliclecatsHow old are you?

Edited

I'm 37. Both my parents also worked in hospitals and were seriously anti-smoking.

senua · 11/07/2026 18:25

potterspot · 11/07/2026 17:57

Some people do make it look cool but I think it’s more of a case that they are already cool.

Smoking in films etc used to look cool (1950s era). That's because we don't have smell-o-vision! Like a PP, my parent smoked and it put me off (thank goodness)..

Maybe it's something to do with that old advert "you're never alone with a Marlborough". You're never have to hang around, being awkward, perhaps being stood up. You are always doing something. Now we have phones to occupy us instead.
Also, there is the veil of smoke which adds mystery and intrigue.

It can look cool - from a safe distance - but the reality is nothing like..

TheLightSideOfTheMoon · 11/07/2026 18:21

potterspot · 11/07/2026 18:19

@TheLightSideOfTheMoonwhat does the token smelly child have to do with smoking?

The smelly child stank of cigarettes smoke…

happysunr1se · 11/07/2026 18:21

Er, really??

I think it looks sad, in every way.

potterspot · 11/07/2026 18:19

@TheLightSideOfTheMoonwhat does the token smelly child have to do with smoking?

TheLightSideOfTheMoon · 11/07/2026 18:18

When I was at school (around 14/15 years old)the smokers would collect up dog ends and half-smoked cigarettes from the pavement to smoke. Or they’d steal them from family and brag about it.

Because of this I’ve always seen it as totally skanky.

And in primary school there was the token ‘smelly child’ who’s parents didn’t care they stank. Which is just really sad.

The 80s and 90s have a lot to answer for.

Lucyccfc68 · 11/07/2026 18:17

Maybe it’s a generational thing, but my 21 year old DS and his friends all think that smoking is really chavvy.

TheMauveRobin · 11/07/2026 18:17

Beyond it being nasty, smelly and polluting to others’ air, you really don’t want to watch someone die of lung cancer (my mum died from it in 2023). Sorry biggest NOPE!

potterspot · 11/07/2026 18:17

@thejelliclecatsHow old are you?

potterspot · 11/07/2026 18:16

I mean I had plenty of friends in the 90s who were occasional social smokers, not everyone was smoking 40 a day!

thejelliclecats · 11/07/2026 18:16

midwalker · 11/07/2026 18:14

Come on. Of course it looked cool (and arguably still does). If it hadn’t, then it wouldn’t have become such a widespread habit especially amongst young people.

Not in my opinion, it's always stunk and looked revolting.

I wonder if people's views are age-related.

thejelliclecats · 11/07/2026 18:14

LibertyLucy1975 · 11/07/2026 18:07

It obviously did otherwise kids wouldn’t have started in the first place!

Peer pressure is a huge thing.