Controversial Anti-Smoking Ad: Crying Child Loses Parent

[m3a12as4]

Someone give that kid a smoke!!! It will not only make him stop crying but also make him 10x cooler.

[acrazyswede]

This is CHILD ABUSE plain and simple! No young child can cry like that on demand (aka acting). They deliberately made him feel abandoned. Thats disgusting! I wouldn't listen to any ad campaign that abuses children or animals

[Thorpy43]

@acrazyswede Harden up princess

[bluestreaker541]

Even though the kid had his mom taken away to get a real reaction from the child, the ad is still strong and there should be more like it. It was probably the only way to get a real reaction. He may have thought he lost his mom for maybe a minute but the reaction was so authentic that it could touch a lot of parents. The kid was fooled into thinking his mom was gone for a minute but it was at the expense of changing lives. Getting people to stop smoking > young boy scared for a minute

[brendalg4]

@bluestreaker541 Do you really think a 30 second commercial is shot in 1 minute? It takes hours or even days to shoot a commercial.

[belinda06101]

I dislike this so cruel to do this to a child, if it is true the producers did this on purpose made the mum walk away should never had been done, of course the poor lil boy is upset & is it true that this is the true mother of this child? if it is how cruel of her to even accept such a role in a commercial I think its disgusting, I hope I never see any commercials for quit smoking again like this I am a mother of a 15 month baby boy & not only would it tear my son apart if he were that age .

[brendalg4]

@belinda06101 Yes, it was the child's real mother. See watch?v=JHeokDUDGPE The representative tries to say that the child only lost sight of his mother for a few seconds, as if by mistake. Give me a break. You know they did it on purpose, multiple times.. until they got the reaction they wanted. That is the only thing that makes sense.

Read up on stories of how they get children to give the reaction they want.. such as telling them their dog was just shot.

[Midgetgirl733]

i se what they're saying. the kids mom was smoking and she passed away so now he doesnt have her there. I TOTALLY SEE!!! its sad tho. :((

[Godzie1]

Lung cancer can happen at any time at any age to anyone who smokes or not. I'm sick of these lies & trying to bullshit taking it out on smokers because we had enough of it. WE ALL DIE! it's a fact of life & if you can't accept it? Then you are in a world of hardship! Quit blaming the smokers. Millions of smokers who smoked in the 50s, 60s & 70s are alive & well today! I'm one of them! Get off this shit! Using a poor child. Gis mother could have been hit by a car? You going to ban cars?

[whoyodanny]

I wish my mother had seen this ad when I was that child's age. Maybe then she might not have died of lung cancer when I was 14. That was 31 years ago, and the pain of not having her still hurts the sam as it did then. Smoking..what a stupid reason to die.

[Godzie1]

@whoyodanny Danny my mother is 82 & smoked all her life. She is alive & well. Sorry your mom died when you were only 14 but it was her time & we all have one. At least you were old enough to remember her.. some people lost their mom when they were babies & have not even a memory.

[code53692]

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[c0naaan]

Stop smoking PLOX.

[mcarkin]

When I watched this video, i started to cry and thought this is exactly how i feel

[mark1m]

anti-smokers care so much about your health, they are willing to traumatize children. The anti-smoking crowd is out of control these days... seriously heading down the path of nazi level intolerance. Its gone beyond improving health and has been perverted into a sick crusade against personal freedom.

[cyclops2108]

if your personal freedom doesnot affect the others, they would not go against it.

[seanspade]

Hitler started the first anti-smoking campaign. Eva wasn't thrilled, she was a hardcore smoker, much to Hitler's chagrin.

[blueiz96]

This ad was terrible. They really took the mother away from the child!! That's terrible to make a child do that, even when they are that young!

[seanspade]

The anti-smoking Nazi's don't care about children - they care about dictating other people's lives.

[menehunemedia]

How am I missing the point? The kid is in tears because he lost his mom, just like my sibs and I miss our dad with the big difference being that our dad isn't coming back which was the whole point of the ad.

[jhobartb]

Because the producers of the ad could just as easily have made their point without exploiting a child.

Aside from just being ethically wrong to begin with, it doesn't help their case. By resorting to cheap tactics like this, you're starting from a negative place that makes people less likely to listen to you.

If you're trying to convince me of something, appeal to me and get me on your side. Don't start off by making me say, "F you."

[brendalg4]

@menehunemedia You are missing the point because this child was exploited. Those are real tears. He is *not* acting. A representative went on television and admitted the tears were real.

Is it right to make a child fear he has lost his mother to make a point? We are always telling children something bad could happen to them if they don't stay in our sight.

[menehunemedia]

@brendalg4 I understood that & I think it's reprehensible to exploit a child for the sake of "art" just like they do all the time in films and on TV like on the first episode of Boardwalk Empire where the little girl is shrieking in obvious terror. My point was that I wish my father knew the sentiment of the ad, not how it was made. That is a totally different discussion.

[jhobartb]

It's not controversial just because it features a crying child. It's because the child isn't acting - The producers really made him believe his mother was lost, which is cruel and exploitative. I'm sorry for your loss but you're missing the point.

[belinda06101]

@jhobartb its disgusting, hope we never see commercials like this using children again