Why Is Pipe Smoking Less Popular Now?

deathmetal · May 11, 2016

The title tells the story, which is a question for you to weigh in on.
Pipe smoking was popular and considered normal in the 1950s; why has it faded, while cigarette smoking is (apparently, because the things are available at every convenience store) still popular?
Habits do not just die. Something causes the death. It does not take a genius to figure out that swirling smoke around in your mouth is less risky than coating your lungs with it.
Was it economics? The goody two-shoes regulatory patrol? Climate change? Rise in Mexican food causing the air in enclosed spaces to become inflammable?

jmatt · May 11, 2016

I blame it on Royal Yacht. :nana:

ray47 · May 11, 2016

Everyone is just in a hurry today, unlike the 1950's. Cigarettes are more convenient then pipes.

condorlover1 · May 11, 2016

Pipe smoking was not considered 'cool man' and very 'old man' back in the late 1960s and if you smoked a pipe in the early 1980s you had to be prepared to take some stick from people so the herd mentality of lighting up a Malboro Light or whatever won out.

lohengrin · May 11, 2016

Deathmetal,

maybe you already answered the question by yourself in the post about garage door openers:

"In a dying society, everyone wants constant distraction from reality".

When smoking pipe we think about lots of things concerning reality.

lordofthepiperings · May 11, 2016

My guess is it was a combination of cigarettes being more convenient and more places banning smoking.
If my office would allow me I'd do all my engineering work while puffing on my pipe. Probably would get through my pound of 1Q a lot quicker lol.
I guess you could also factor in the next generation saw it as an old man thing since their dads did it and not pipe smoking was just one more way to rebel against the previous generation. With a lot of 18-35yr olds getting into the hobby today it seems to me the millenial generation is rebelling against the baby boomers/GenXers by taking up the pipe.

jpmcwjr · May 11, 2016

Depending on your definition of "popular", perhaps, but cigarettes are no where near so today than in the 60's. And though a much smaller sample, I don't see pipe smoking as any less popular than in the 60's. YMMV.

iamn8 · May 11, 2016

You can't smoke anywhere therefor it's not seen and not on people's minds. Thank the anti smoking lobby. Also, I'd bet there are more smokers than stats say as many won't admit to smoking for stigma and insurance reasons.

mso489 · May 11, 2016

I blame it on the pace of pipe smoking as compared to cigarettes and cigars. With nails and stogies, you light it, it burns, you smoke it, it's gone. Pipe smoking is more of a ritual. You pack, you char, you light, you puff, you talk, you re-light, you put down the pipe and put out the cat, you re-light, you ponder, you tamp, you relight; then you knock it, scoop it, run a pipe cleaner through it, buff it off, and pick another pipe off the rack and start looking over your open blends. This is not what your go-go hot shot guy wants to do. He feels like a "losa." You have to be willing to be alone with your thoughts, which is terrifying to many.

jacks6 · May 11, 2016

Too many accessories to carry around if you want to do it properly. Much easier just to whip out a pack of cigarettes or even a cigar if you're feeling fancy. I agree with lordofthepiperings on smoking in the office. If I could use my pipe on the job I'd smoke a lot more

ltstone · May 11, 2016

Different lifestyle today, Before everyone had pools, satellite, internet and more jobs were daytime labor I'm sure after a hard days work there was less distractions and it was just nice to relax, sit outside, visit with friends and family, read and .... smoke a pipe.

jefff · May 11, 2016

Also, smoking a pipe is a skill that takes a bit to master. Between the filling and learning to puff slower than is instinctive.
It's not plug and play like a cigar.

jpmcwjr · May 11, 2016

Jpmcw : Pipe sales figures, the disappearance of pipe shops & closure/merger of companies making pipes/pipe tobaccos tell the story. We are not popping down to the local to get some more Balkan Sobranie & check out the new Sasieni-made Sasienis that just came in.
Quick, effortless gratification is an easy sell. Don't disagree with any of that. I would posit that pipe and pipe tobacco sales are down less than cigaret sales comparing the 60's to today. I am too lazy to try to look up figures.

jmill208 · May 11, 2016

Blame C.Everett Koop.

During Koop's tenure as Surgeon General, smoking rates in the United States declined significantly from 38% to 27%

mmopipe · May 11, 2016

I think that this thread has already covered the reasons why. One: Convenience. It's just so easy to light up a cigarette. Two: Social stigma. The "old man" factor doesn't bode well with today's younger people. Three: The anti-tobacco industry. The hate against tobacco along with the heavier taxation is putting a serious hurt on all smoking of tobacco.
I wish it would make a comeback, but it's all but a dying hobby now... Smoke on brothers of the pipe. Smoke on.

jacks6 · May 11, 2016

The new regs are pretty much going to close the doors on the hobby even faster

deathmetal · May 11, 2016

One: Convenience. It's just so easy to light up a cigarette. Two: Social stigma. The "old man" factor doesn't bode well with today's younger people. Three: The anti-tobacco industry. The hate against tobacco along with the heavier taxation is putting a serious hurt on all smoking of tobacco.

I am less convinced by Two, and would add Four: with no smoking in public places, including offices, people are driven to 15-minute "smoke breaks" instead of being able to puff serenely throughout the day.
The anti-tobacco laws have driven people from safer methods, like pipes and cigars, to more dangerous ones like wolfing down light cigarettes in exhaust-ridden parking lots.
http://www.cancer.org/cancer/cancercauses/othercarcinogens/pollution/diesel-exhaust-and-cancer

mso489 · May 11, 2016

Dying hobby? We're undeniably under siege. Still, at the moment, this is the golden age of pipe tobacco blending, and the pipe industry, sometimes a home industry, is certainly thriving, if only here and there. The independent and sometimes contrarian nature of the pipe smoking community may preserve the tobacco pipe in some form or another, although life may be harder for people who smoke many bowls a day, in terms of sustaining supply. For the one-or-two bowls a day folks who are already overstocked (by their lights) the tobacco pipe may be around for the duration.

brian64 · May 11, 2016

Pipe smoking was popular and considered normal in the 1950s

There were also many more cigar and cigarette smokers then than there are now, so I wonder if the ratio of pipe smokers to the others was really significantly different then?

jpmcwjr · May 11, 2016

jp : you don't need to. Barling, Charatan, Comoy, Hardcastle, Loewe, Parker & Sasieni died 30+ years ago, "surviving" only as trade names stamped on contract work from anywhere and everywhere. Add Stanwell more recently.
Same with pipe tobaccos.
At the same time, Camel, Marlboro, Newport &c. &c. &c. are still made by their original concerns -- alive and flourishing.
qed.

I don't know what you think you've proven with the above statements. Manufacturing name plates have disappeared or morphed over time in many industries. Remember Hudson? Studebaker? Deusenberg? Duryea? Yale? Zent? The list is long; many hundreds!
I've stated that I believe cigarette smoking has taken a larger hit in pounds sold in 2016 vs. the 60's than has pipe tobacco. That's it.

Why Is Pipe Smoking Less Popular Now?

Log in

SmokingPipes.com Updates

PipesMagazine Approved Sponsor

Site Sponsors

PipesMagazine Approved Sponsor

PipesMagazine Approved Sponsor

PipesMagazine Approved Sponsor

PipesMagazine Approved Sponsor

Lifer

Part of the Furniture Now

Lifer

Lifer

Lifer

Lifer

Moderator

Lifer

Lifer

Lifer

Part of the Furniture Now

Lifer

Moderator

Lifer

Lurker

Lifer

Lifer

Lifer

Lifer

Moderator