Smoking tobacco became popular with the lower ( working ) class because it helped to stop the hunger pains when there was little or no food around
When cinemas came around, almost all the big stars smoked making it cool to smoke
since children want to copy thier screen idols then they start to smoke too
during the first world war, both alllies and the axis troops were given free tobacco products in their food parcels
this meant almost all soldiers became smokers
when the wars stopped , the soldiers continued to smoke
right through the fifties, the swinging sixties and the seventies almost every programme shown on television had "beautiful " people smoking which kept another generation desiring to smoke
it was only in the eighties that smoking was shown publically to be harmful
since then with public smoking bans of differing severity depending on what country you are in
have made a huge impact on tobacco sales. for example in the uk you cannot smoke in pubs or resturaunts, in india you cannot smoke in the street but can only smoke in your home
the only way to stop people smoking is to make tobacco only available to registered tobacco addicts
but this is unlikely to happen because most governments rely on the money they raise on tax on cigarettes to help balance thier budgets,
one positive is that more and more countrys are banning tobacco advertising on sports so there is for example no more JPS lotus or Marlboro in grand prix motor racing or world "embassy" snooker tournament
therefore hopefully if smoking is not seen to be cool then the next generation of kids wont smoke