Here’s my theory that is based on no research whatsoever:

Cigarette companies used to pay to have characters smoke in movies and TV shows. This would cultivate a social acceptance and “cool factor” around smoking. During the 80s and 90s, this practice came under fire and smoking in movies and TV dramatically dropped to the point of almost being non-existent.

Then time passed, vaping became popular, and people stopped caring about the impact of normalizing or even glorifying smoking. So the practice of paying studios to have characters smoke started to return. Nobody said anything, so it is becoming common place again.

It doesn’t matter if it is unhealthy, it is profitable.