What was the single most important reason why you began to smoke tobacco cigarettes?
What was the major reason you started smoking?
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The antis stopped cigarette advertising years ago, even though the tobacco companies claimed that the aim of advertising was to get smokers to switch brands. Flavored cigarettes were recently pulled off the market, and now there is a push for plain packaging...I'm not even sure if there will be words allowed to allow consumers to choose among brands, much less types. Do these factors actually influence whether kids begin to smoke? I don't think so. At least not in my case. What do you think?
My friends were doing it, of course. When law makers speak of students being influenced into smoking by teachers and similar nonsense, it's like they're from some very distant galaxy. 
Mine is a combination. My parents and friends smoked. They were easy for a youngster to get them as I was never carded. I used to buy my parent's their cartons. If I couldn't get them, I could always snag (steal-I hate that word) theirs.
dspin, I think your response would qualify for option 3...unless John Wayne, Steve McQueen, or Perry Mason were your close friends or your parents...
But you are probably right...I should have had a separate category for famous role models doing it. I really was thinking about those ridiculous accusations that if kids see us vaping it will make them want to take up smoking. I couldn't believe some absolute stranger had that much power to influence a kid's behavior. Of course we are not famous Actors or Musicians. They mnight have more influence.
But really, that was your biggest influence? You went out and bought a pack of cigarettes because Perry Mason smoked? The female movie stars of the 40s did make smoking look very sophisticated, but if a friend had not handed me a cigarette, seeing a movie star smoke would not have made me go out and buy the things. The movie stars may have influenced me to a small extent, but not enough to be the primary reason I started to smoke.
But you are probably right...I should have had a separate category for famous role models doing it. I really was thinking about those ridiculous accusations that if kids see us vaping it will make them want to take up smoking. I couldn't believe some absolute stranger had that much power to influence a kid's behavior. Of course we are not famous Actors or Musicians. They mnight have more influence.
But really, that was your biggest influence? You went out and bought a pack of cigarettes because Perry Mason smoked? The female movie stars of the 40s did make smoking look very sophisticated, but if a friend had not handed me a cigarette, seeing a movie star smoke would not have made me go out and buy the things. The movie stars may have influenced me to a small extent, but not enough to be the primary reason I started to smoke.
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Sorry Elaine, but I really can't vote in this poll due to the lack of an appropriate choice. For me it was boredom. Literally. I was fifteen, and had a summer job on a really quiet and isolated private island - doing dishes. One older sister was the family's nanny, one was the cook, and I, the youngest, was the dishwasher. So I had long summer days with nothing at all to. I started by stealing a cigarette or two from the pack of someone in the household who smoked, and sneaking off to be by myself to smoke them. Did that a few times, and within days I was buying packs for myself via ferry trips to the mainland on my day off.
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Honestly, I was never influenced by television. For me, it was a close friend. What happened was I was 22 and I was going through extremely personal and emotional hardship and I had been hanging out with my friend and he stepped outside to smoke. Which I never knew he smoked, and he would smoke 1 clove cigarette a day sometimes not even 1 a day. Anyway, he and I had been talking as we stepped outside and I was slouched in my car seat with the car hanging open in tears and he said to me, "Look I don't know what else to say to help take your pain away" and he handed me a clove cigarette. That's where it started, then slowly I crept towards addiction. It took me months after first to finish a pack of 20 Clove cigarettes. Then eventually, before you know it, I'm buying 1 pack a week. Then a pack a day.
Tragic as I was raised to never smoke... But, the pain of loss can do a lot to people make them do strange things. And here I thought I was in the clear as I remember hearing a statistic about if you haven't smoked by the time you're 19 you'll never smoke. Pfff, wasn't in my case. Women and loss of family can really make a man bitter. Anyway, it's in the past as I am a happier man now that I have found vaping.
Tragic as I was raised to never smoke... But, the pain of loss can do a lot to people make them do strange things. And here I thought I was in the clear as I remember hearing a statistic about if you haven't smoked by the time you're 19 you'll never smoke. Pfff, wasn't in my case. Women and loss of family can really make a man bitter. Anyway, it's in the past as I am a happier man now that I have found vaping.
I started smoking for probably the stupidest reason EVER. Lets see if I can make this short.
I was 17 and was in a high school relationship with a guy that was going nowhere. I told him that we were over about a dozen times, but he just couldn't get it. I dated other guys, stopped calling him completely, etc... but it just wouldn't stick. (He would show up at my job and cry, poor dude) I learned that he despised cigarettes and smokers so, I did what any teenager would do, something really dumb. He worked at a grocery store, so I went in one night and bought my first pack of Camel Special Lights from him and proceeded to light up in the parking lot with him complaining and whining at me the entire time. (Yes, he followed me outside... /sigh)
It was all downhill from there. Only plus to it was that it worked...he did finally leave me alone.
I was 17 and was in a high school relationship with a guy that was going nowhere. I told him that we were over about a dozen times, but he just couldn't get it. I dated other guys, stopped calling him completely, etc... but it just wouldn't stick. (He would show up at my job and cry, poor dude) I learned that he despised cigarettes and smokers so, I did what any teenager would do, something really dumb. He worked at a grocery store, so I went in one night and bought my first pack of Camel Special Lights from him and proceeded to light up in the parking lot with him complaining and whining at me the entire time. (Yes, he followed me outside... /sigh)
It was all downhill from there. Only plus to it was that it worked...he did finally leave me alone.
nyte- OMG- same thing with me!!!
except I didnt date others, or anything- I just tried to make him see I wasnt the one for him- Nothing worked....
at 15 a boyfriend told me if I ever picked up a cig he would break up withme.
the *(&@(&)(*^@%^ lied - took another 3 months before I made him mad enough to break it off...
except I didnt date others, or anything- I just tried to make him see I wasnt the one for him- Nothing worked....
at 15 a boyfriend told me if I ever picked up a cig he would break up withme.
the *(&@(&)(*^@%^ lied - took another 3 months before I made him mad enough to break it off...
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26 years ago. I was 14 and a couple months. Older friends were sneaking them from their parents. We crouched behind a white Mitsubishi car and took a drag. It was a Kent. If only I could have that day to do over.
My parents didn't smoke. None of my friends smoked. I was never really much influenced by movies, TV, or advertisements - much less strangers. Wasn't really any fancy flavors or packaging then.
I was curious.
I tried it.
I liked it.
I was curious.
I tried it.
I liked it.
I was about thirteen. Almost everyone in my family smoked. I wanted to be accepted by my older brothers. My dad kept his carton in the freezer and wouldn't notice if I "borrowed" a pack, and there were vending machines in every gas station and restaurant lobby back then. And nobody carded or even thought twice about selling them to me. They cost about a buck a pack too. Smoking was something grown-ups did, and I wanted to be a grown-up.
Come to think of it, I also liked the smell when I was a kid. Not really why I started, but it certainly didn't stop me.
Not included in the poll. In High School, I found that as a non-smoker I got a buzz from inhaling deeply on a cigarette. Strange but true, that got me started.
I started smoking at 14 years old because my friends were doing it and you only had to be 5 years old to buy cigs, they made you cool. If you had to be 18 to buy smokes then, I am pretty sure I would have never started smoking.
A variety of reasons. One was definitely rebelling for the sake of it. At 13 I couldn't legally buy them (minimum age was 16 at the time). Characters smoking on TV and films and older kids smoking also had an influence I think. I can't say packaging or advertising was a reason.
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