Coffee is the new smoking. It seems like everyone’s trying to give it up. I’ve overheard it everywhere recently: “I’ve been trying to quit since last week / My friend’s felt fantastic since giving it up / My manager picked the wrong day to get in a fight with me, it’d been three days since I had a cup / Decaf makes me want to stab someone.”

The pros to cigarettes and coffee are almost identical. Both offer an amazing pick-me-up mental boost. Both serve as a great tool for social interaction. There’s no better way to start the day than a drag of smoke or a slurp of brew. However, they also leave you feeling edgy and twitchy. And darken pearly white teeth. And let’s not forget the hopeless addiction. Apart from the lung cancer, they’re basically the same vice.

Too extreme of a comparison? Perhaps. But consider the marketing behind both addictions. Not too many years ago, most advertisers portrayed smoking as the habit of the suave and sophisticated. Celebrities proudly endorsed their favourite brands. Marketers presented tobacco consumption as a cultural activity, an edifying practice.

Sound familiar?

1951 du Maurier ad

2008 Nespresso ad with George Clooney

Marketing has subtly turned a simple caffeinated beverage into a fashionable lifestyle, just as they did with cigarettes. Friends showed North America that cafes were the place to be. Celebrity powerhouses, such as George Clooney, have helped brands like Nespresso obtain global revenues nearing almost a billion dollars. And we, the consumers? We have gradually substituted one addiction for another, trading cigarette packs for soy lattes.

I’ve been both a smoker and a coffee fiend. I’ve managed to quit the cigarettes, but giving up coffee has been virtually impossible. I tried joining the abstinence trend last week by switching to tea, the caffeine addict’s methadone. But it’s just not the same high. Besides, the battle was lost from the moment the coffee beans in the kitchen cupboard began to whisper my name.

Nicorette marketers take note: caffeine patches will be the next big thing.

Top photo credit: Thought Sparks