When I was a cigarette smoker (3 packs a day) I remember that when I saw a movie or tv show in which the actors also were smoking, I would reach for my pack and light one up without even thinking about it.

And if I didn't have smokes on me (a rare thing when one supports a 3 pack a day habit) and I saw such a scene in a movie or on tv, I would rach for the pack and notice that I didn't have any cigarettes. Then, I would become distracted while I considered whether to get a pack to smoke or to not have one. Either way, the addiction to smoking (my version of it anyway) was quite clear.

But... I already was habituated to tobacco smoking. As far as I know, what caused me to start smoking in the first place was not cartoons or movies with smoking scenes but ... to look cool and hang out with friends who smoked so that I could feel more like I belonged, etc. It certainly wasn't stress. I don't think we even thought about stress when I was 15 (the year I started).

I went cold turkey and quit haven't smoked since then. But in the first years after I quit, I couldn't watch a movie or a cartoon that had smoking scenes in it without really wanting to have a smoke.

So.... I cannot say that visual images of Tom and Jerry smoking cigarettes made me take up tobacco smoking but I can say that while I was smoking and for a good long while after I quit smoking, those images gave me a very strong desire to light one up and smoke again.