Why Is Pipe Smoking Less Popular Now?

[tennsmoker]

Keep on filling those cellars, bros.

 

[cosmicfolklore]

No time to set down and smoke, just fire up a cig, suck it down, and move on, busy, busy, busy... Then, switching to a pipe? well, you're addicted to the cigarettes. And, for those of us that transitioned can attest, the addiction in pipes is not the same as cigarettes. It is hard to transition. The monster that is cigarettes just keeps you on the hook. Whereas, yes, I need my pipes, but I can also go longer without a bowl than I ever could go without a cigarette. Get a quick fix and move on back to work. Not many people are blessed with being able to smoke a pipe all day while working.
Here, the Tinderboxes in every mall kept pipes smoking going throughout the 80's. It was no smoking policies of the 90's that kept us men from buying a new tin and setting around the fountain at the mall and smoking while our wives damaged our credit.

Plus, many of us had that one uncle, guy at church, or neighbor who smoked a pipe and codger blends all day, and then showed up with half a jaw after getting a cancer removed. That put a dent in it also. And, I'll have to say that I think about that from time to time when I look in a mirror. Luckily for tobacco companies, my thoughts are that half a jaw might make me look better, ha!

 

[deathmetal]

It was no smoking policies of the 90's that kept us men from buying a new tin and setting around the fountain at the mall and smoking while our wives damaged our credit.

Other than black metal, the 90s were kind of a mistake.

 

[gmjabsky]

Very few modern folk are as hip as we are

 

[smokertruck]

just saw the movie "charge of the light brigade" with errol flynn - one of the stiff upper lip english military leaders was smoking ( really smoking ) a beautiful small calabash -

now when i watch old movies i take note of the pipe smokers.

check out the old movie "lost horizon" - the chap in charge smokes a unique pipe with a very long shank & the smoke he exhales is a very dense smoke. charles laughton in an old pirate movie smokes a clay pipe & you see him also really smoking it.
of course many more smoked pipes back in the 50's 60's just much fewer blends but we all from then remember the great taste of those original tobaccos. - just read the posts of the bastardization of "3 nuns" today compared to the 60's - it was all coins then not like today's "fill".
ok finished my rant for the day - good there is a great site like this to let us old has beens let off steam.

 

[aeropuffer]

Many millions of dollars were spent on advertising on the Marlboro man and Camel Joes, etc. Very little was spent on pipe smokers. Follow the money.

 

[jruthledge]

Many millions of dollars were spent on advertising on the Marlboro man and Camel Joes, etc. Very little was spent on pipe smokers. Follow the money.

I think you hit the coffin nail on the head there. I would guess that cigarettes are more profitable, and this is what caused the advertising push for cigarettes. it might just be a matter of getting people to smoke more. The equivalent amount of tobacco in a pack of cigarettes would take a lot longer to smoke in a pipe. So for a while all the glamorous movie stars were smoking and doctors were recommending cigarettes to patients for stress reduction and maintenance of their "T-zone". Why would you smoke a pipe when you can get a much faster and more profound effect with less initial investment and look like a movie star while you're at it?

 

[perdurabo]

Was gaining popularity in the Early 21st Century, until man's neighbors felt tobacco was an unhealthy choice. The masses used the FDA and help from special interests to snatch man's happiness from his lips. Another Art was lost. -Ingunn Kidd

 

[checotah]

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.

@jpmcwjr, Totally agree. In the 60's most people smoked; a minority didn't, and most of that smoking was cigarettes. Today, true, there are still smokers, but not nearly as many, percentage wise. As already mentioned, cigarettes got the majority of the advertising dollar, especially in the 60's. Pipe smoking kinda coasted along but wasn't portrayed as cool because all that attention and hype was being given to the nails by big tobacco. Then came the anti-smoking push, aimed mostly at cigs because they were the most prevalent and visible. Unfortunately, the subsequent smoking bans, while aimed primarily at cigs, carried the rest of us into that stigma.

 

[newbroom]

It's all because of the Model T. We, the labor force and entrepreneurial innovators of consumer driven economics, became ever more influenced by technology. Everything sped up. Pipes involve patience, leisure, and time.

 

[bigpond]

Where my ladies at?
Anyone know how long a coffee break is?
Women account for 52% of the population and they don't smoke pipes.

 

[jmill208]

Pipe smoking isn't popular? Do tell..

 

[briarcudgel]

Pipe smoking is still a somewhat flourishing hobby/industry evidenced by the many suppliers of pipes and boutique tobaccos, albeit more expensive now than in decades past. It is nowhere near as popular as it once was in the 1950s, or earlier, but we still are a niche group of smokers/hobbyists. With less free time, the demonization of smokers in general, our kids being taught the evils of the weed in school, many of us feel uncomfortable smoking a pipe in public. Not everyone owns a home, and apartments can have non-smoking rules to contend with. None of the above lends itself to expanding what we do.

 

[redpanda]

I think it also has a lot to do with fashion. Things change over time and so does fashion. Look at how people dressed in the years you speak of. Everything was different. The things which are envouge today will not be in 50 years from now.

 

[briarcudgel]

Good point, RP

 

[mso489]

General down trend, undeniably, but within the last five to eight years, slight up-ticks in pipe tobacco blending, artisanal pipes, and online pipe and tobacco sales, I'd say. Tobacco pipes have hardly come roaring back, but I think some of the businesses related to it are doing reasonably well.

 

[mothernaturewilleatusallforbreakfast]

I believe cigarettes to begin with and the more recent on-going non-smoking movement combined with the rise in pot smoking = pipe smoking less popular now. I also think that the fast pace of the world today and the required amount of work that goes into being a pipe smoker = pipe smoking less popular now. More people used to read books, now they read texts; I think most cigar guys would tell you that they've considered smoking a pipe, but don't want to deal with everything that comes with it. They just want to light up and go, and then discard when their done. It's how we condition ourselves now. Well... maybe not us pipe smokers. Although, I will use a paper plate every now and then.

 

[mso489]

I'd prefer pipes in any case, but the cost comparison between cigars and pipe tobacco (factor out the pipes since the price range is vast) is incredible. You can get perhaps 20 pipe bowls out of an $11 small tin of tobacco, better quality blends, compared to five-six-more times the price for mid-range cigars.

 

[tgwilt]

I gotta say that I can't remember seeing anyone smoke a pipe in public in the last 5 years. Here in Florida, I can't even find a retail pipe/tobacco store. Doesn't really matter to me as long as I can find pipe tobacco somewhere, even if it's only online. I've got enough (50+) pipes to last me for the rest of my life.
I have a friend whom I have converted to pipe smoking from the nails. He enjoys it, even though he mistakenly thinks that because one of his pipes is a Missouri Meerschaum that it is a carved Meerschaum. I'm waiting for him to come visit from Ohio so I can show him a real carved Meerschaum.
Keep on puffing, pipers

 

[jaygreen55]

Tobacco use in general has greatly declined. According to the CDC the prevalence of adult male cigarette smokers has declined from 54.5% in 1965 to 16.9% in 2014, a 70% reduction. Has pipe smoking declined any more than that?
Another factor in the decline of pipe smoking is the cigar craze of the 1990s. Young people new to tobacco smoking picked up cigars instead of pipes. B&M tobacconists responded by becoming much more cigar forward in their displays with pipes in the background.