At the same time that cigarette smoking has been diminishing in its appeal, cigar smoking has been gaining adherents in American society. One reason for the spread of cigar smoking has been the fact that the habit has been taken up by a number of celebrities who have also participated in high-profile advertising and who have made cigar-smoking the "hip" social act. When Demi Moore appeared on the cover of Cigar Aficionado magazine with a cigar and equated a cigar with a fine wine, one critic notes that this equation "has firmly taken hold among the pretenscienti, neo yuppies who love the 'naughty,' politically incorrect frisson that comes with every public puff" (Motavalli 42):
No longer is the cigar smoker stereotyped as the heartless capitalist depicted in a Working Assets ad; now he - and increasingly, she - is cool, a rebel with a rich inner life. It is the tattoo and the belly button ring of the late 90s, and its indulgence is catered to by upscale cigar bars with walk in humidors. Americans smoked an incredible 4.5 billion cigars in 1996, a 44.5 percent rise from 1993 (Motavalli 42).
Such celebrity endorsements have been a major reason why cigar smoking has increased, but another reason is indeed the fact that the dangers of cigarette smoking are so widely known, while the dangers of cigar smoking have not been given the same media attention. Smoking of any kind at least begins as a means to achieve an image, usually an image of adulthood for teenagers, or of fitting in with the "in" crowd for young people. Cigars are the new image-maker.
One of the reasons this has become so is because of a particular magazine which has set out to promote a new image for cigars and to enlist the aid of celebrities to do so. This is a new quarterly magazine called Cigar Aficionado (Rusher 57). Many of the ads and image-setting articles and photo features have addressed women, which is something new for makers of cigars. ...