On his famous voyage in 1492, Christopher Columbus (1451–1506) noticed that the Arawak people of the Caribbean enjoyed smoking the rolled-up leaves of a local plant. Since Columbus took the first tobacco seeds back to Europe, the use of tobacco has spread all over the world. Tobacco has played a visible and distinctive role in societies everywhere. Of all the different forms of tobacco, by far the most popular is the cigarette—that little paper cylinder filled with shredded tobacco plus a few added chemicals.

For centuries considered both glamorous and wicked, cigarette smoking has had a powerful appeal for those who wish to appear tough and rugged or cool and sophisticated. Most of all, cigarettes appeal to adolescents who are at an insecure stage of life and often wish to appear to be all of those things. The tobacco companies that make cigarettes understand these emotional insecurities and use...