Purpose -The purpose of this paper is to examine the effect of portrayed smoking status of actors on their popularity with both smoking and non-smoking young people, as well as their perceptions of the prevalence of smoking Design/methodology/approach -Two experimental studies were conducted with Australian undergraduate university students, in which students were exposed to different versions of mock magazines featuring images of actors smoking and not smoking, as well as control actors. Findings -The attitudes of young people towards well-known actors were little influenced by the presence or absence of cigarettes, but non-smoking actors were perceived more favourably when depicted in a group with smoking actors. Smoking actors tended to be preferred by young people who smoked. The results of both studies confirm that young people's estimates of smoking prevalence are considerably inflated. Originality/value -The results of the current study suggest two key implications for health education: the need to address young people's elevated perceptions of smoking prevalence among their peers, parents, and celebrities by communicating the social norm of non-smoking; and the potential use of celebrities -such as actors -as spokespersons or role models in anti-smoking campaigns.