When it comes to smoking, men see the habit different from women. Women and men cigarette smoking statistics show that while women light up to mask anxiety and find something to do with their hands or simply because they feel the peer pressure to do so, men smoking cigarettes primarily do so because of the advertising that associates the habit with coolness, level headedness, and a sense of independence. When you see a man smoking a cigarette in an ad, he is almost always with friends and enjoying a social time that showcases him as being very aware of the pecking order and believing himself to be on top of it. An ad depicting a cigar smoking man plays to the male smoker who would like to showcase success, the fact that he has arrived at whatever benchmarks he set for himself, and of course the idea that first and foremost he can afford the cigar and all its trappings.

Naturally, those men smoking in the commercials and ads do not actually depict a realistic image. Considering the number of men that smoke, it is more realistic to infer that while there may be the occasional smoking man that lives up to the smoking man images, but by and large the men smoking cigarettes and cigars in response to the ads are the mere hangers on, the once who are seeking to buy coolness, ruggedness, independence, and a sense of being an integral part of a social scene simply by paying $4 or more a pack for some smokes which somehow are magically imparting these properties upon them.

Just like the little blanket will not transform junior into Superman, so the cigarette hanging out the side of the mouth of men smoking will not turn them into successful, socially accepted, and unbeaten males of the species. On the contrary, it has been shown that the long term effects of smoking in males have not only been linked to the big three – cancer, emphysema, and heart disease – but also pinpoints one of the effects of male smoking to be fertility related. Thus, instead of men smoking becoming more virile, it is now proven that the effects of smoking for males will actually emasculate them.

Add to this the fact that a man who smokes has actually precious little in the way of ruggedness and coolness the way James Dean and the Marlboro Man do, and much in the way of a young man smoking to mask his inability to fit in, or simply develop his inert sense of security – in addition to setting himself up for male smokers disease - and you can quickly and easily see why smoking for coolness is little more than a fallacy!