Despite a declining trend in population-based smoking levels across industrialized nations, one area of concern to tobacco control and public health policy is the following: smoking prevalence and incidence is displaying an increasingly steep social class gradient, with people of lower educational attainment, in working class occupations and with lower income levels experiencing lower rates of decline in smoking than other social categories. This presentation explores the role that public health policy plays in the creation of the “marginalized” smoker, discusses the shortcomings of population-based policies to reduce smoking in certain population groups, and offers some options.