Filmmaking is the most powerful medium for advertising. As mentioned by Vape industry experts, Movies defined the culture of the generations. Sometimes, we see innovative technologies we once thought we could only see on screen, but now they are part of our lives.
Cigarette smoking was prevalent mainly in action films, probably because it was manly. However, over time, the health risk of cigarette smoking became more known.
This has negatively impacted the appearance of smoking in films. As such, production companies started to do away with smoking on screen.
Vaping
Vape quickly became a popular alternative for cigarette smoking. In 2014, Oxford Dictionaries announced that “vape” was their International Word of the Year.
However, the popularity of vaping began even earlier. As early as 2011, it is estimated that about 7 million adults use vape or other forms of e-cigarettes. This has blown up to almost 70 million in 2020.
Vaping on Screen
Needless to say, vaping has been very popular, so popular that it has even infiltrated the film industry. We have spotted some of the popular actors using a vape in their scenes:
Johnny Depp, The Tourist (2010)
The Tourist features Angelina Jolie and Johnny Depp in an action-drama film. In this film, we see Frank (Johnny Depp) on a train to Venice.
He is a lighthearted guy with an impressive smoking habit, smoking his e-cig behind a table. Elise (Angelina Jolie) approached him. He immediately hid his hands to accommodate the lady. Some people credit this movie for introducing them to vaping.
Dennis Quaid, Beneath the Darkness (2012)
Quaid plays Vaughn Ely, a psychopath murderer, in this thriller film. He was seen vaping between the 30- to the 40-minute mark of the movie. He used a sleek pen-shaped vaporizer that he sneaked into his palm; then, he puffed the vapor as it drifted in and floated into the scene.
Kevin Spacey, The House of Cards (2013)
Kevin Spacey plays Frank Underwood as a politician who had smoking problems. He was keen on kicking it out of his system. Then during season two of House of Cards, there’s a scene where he was caught by his wife puffing up an e-cig.
His wife was alarmed because she thought Frank already quitted smoking. However, Frank was keen to reply that he was not cheating because it was only vapor. He called it “the addiction without consequences.”
Zac Efron, Dirty Grandpa (2013), and Bad Neighbors (2014)
Zac is first on our list to have showcased vaping in two movies. He did it in the movie Dirty Grandpa and Bad Neighbors, released in consecutive years.
Many vapers give credit to Zac for being their on-screen ambassador. However, in both the movies, the characters Zac was playing were using vape for joint. He was smoking to get high.
Jack Black, The Sex Tape (2014)
Jack Black plays himself as the fictitious owner of a non-fictitious company, YouPorn. He was seen vaping while confronting Cameron Diaz and Jason Segel for breaking into their headquarters to steal and delete their sex tape from YP’s server. He yelled out random names of adult websites.
Among the list, this has to be the best scene. It runs a parallel – this movie is not for kids, so neither is vaping.
Conclusion
Vaping is more popular than ever. Actors on screen or behind the screen use vape. Like many people, the vape is used as an alternative to the traditional cigarette.
However, because of the influence of movies, the younger population is now more exposed to vaping. Movies indeed have an impact on the youth in the aspect of vaping. After all, if it’s cool on screen, then it’ll be cool off-screen.