#  The Persisting Dangers of Cigarette Smoking in the U.S. 

 





A series of posters and graphics intended to inform and change behaviors around cigarette smoking.



 

January 30, 2025

 

 

In the United States, the conversation about the dangers of tobacco usage has shifted to a sole focus on e-cigarettes, even though cigarette smoking critically remains the leading preventable cause of disease, disability, and death in the United States. Growing up, my mother addictively smoked cigarettes, making me never interested in smoking. My impression of smoking has always been negative; however, this is not the case for most other individuals who grow up in communities where either smoking cigarettes is the norm or not present at all. Adolescents with the lowest perceptions of long-term smoking-related risks are over three times more likely to start smoking than adolescents with the highest perceptions of risk. The CDC estimates that 80% of all adult smokers begin smoking before they are 20 years old, and the majority of adolescents report that they were with friends when they smoked their first cigarette. This collection, which consists of a series of posters and set of graphics designed for Instagram, aims to inform people, especially young people, about the dangers of smoking and encourage a change in behavior related to tobacco usage.

## Artist

Rania Jones (2024)

   ![A poster of cigarette pack with mouth open.](/sites/g/files/omnuum10866/files/styles/hwp_1_1__720x720_scale/public/2025-07/Rania%20Jones_Poster%201.png?itok=L5nJ-9va) 

 

   ![A poster with no smoking text in shape of cigarette with smoke.](/sites/g/files/omnuum10866/files/styles/hwp_1_1__720x720_scale/public/2025-07/Rania%20Jones_Poster%202.png?itok=N3IRZuSF) 

 

   ![A poster of people sitting in chairs and a person smoking a cigarette.](/sites/g/files/omnuum10866/files/styles/hwp_1_1__720x720_scale/public/2025-07/Rania%20Jones_Poster%203.png?itok=iVTw345F) 

 

   ![A collage of Instagram posts.](/sites/g/files/omnuum10866/files/styles/hwp_1_1__720x720_scale/public/2025-07/Rania%20Jones_Instagram.png?itok=MgcuEkLj) 

 

## Artist Lens

From the chain-smoking depicted in popular media like Sex and the City’s And Just Like That and The Idol to motifs in the world of beauty like the Tik-Tok viral Lana Del Rey-inspired packs of lipstick meant to mimic cigarettes, cigarette smoking is being romanticized in youth-accessible pop culture. I find my peers frequently noting how they enjoy smoking cigarettes “for the aesthetic.”

My project, which consists of a series of graphically captivating posters designed for schools and predominantly youth spaces, in addition to an Instagram account that features posts about cigarette smoking and the role that quitting can play in saving a life, are mass-reach health communication interventions that aspire to reach a vast audience to change knowledge and behaviors relating to tobacco usage. Given current generations’ propensity to learn information through the internet, I chose a social media page as my media product to easily highlight facts and information in a digestible format. Since youth are fixated on the “aesthetic” nature of cigarette smoking, I evoked a similar visual appearance in my project, focusing on aesthetic graphics, in addition to aggressive slogans and symbols in addition to bold colors, layouts, and text. In creating this project, my hope is to communicate to youth the life-threatening, long-term repercussions of cigarette smoking to enact culture-based change and policy development and implementation.



 

## Media

Digital

[Download The Persisting Dangers of Cigarette Smoking in the U.S. PDF](/file_url/953)



 

 

 



 

 See also:- [ Chronic Diseases/Risks ](/topics/chronic-diseases-risks)
- [ Poster ](/type/poster)
 
 

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