While the other reply is valid, the real reason is very simple. Children. Almost all smoking addicts develop their addiction while young (teenagers or young adults). Media can be a massive influence on the young mind, and seeing smoking portrayed as something cool and sexy predisposes them to try
My parents and almost all adults smoked like chimneys. I was surrounded by horrid smoke, yellowed cigarette butts, nasty discarded filters, that horrid stench, burn holes in clothes and curtains and burn marks in furniture, those horrible sand-filled giant ashtrays. I’ve never smoked.
More power to you. Doesn't really disprove my point. I've had classmates in primary school who were smoking.
I wasn’t trying to disprove your point, only saying the “sexiness” of smoking never got to me.