Scared Little Boy (Anti-Smoking ad) Part 2 of 2

Child in ad shed real tears, producer admits...Anti-smoking agency says his anxiety only lasted a few seconds

A new anti-smoking ad that shows a frightened little boy has a lot of people talking. TODAYs Matt Lauer talks to Fiona Sharkie, executive director of the anti-smoking group Quit Victoria, about why the group created the ad you can watch the interview on You Tube by clicking the highlighted Part One link below the video.

The makers of a controversial anti-smoking ad let a 4-year-old boy lose sight of his mother so that he would cry on camera. But they insist that the child was not harmed and the childs anxiety lasted a matter of only a few seconds.

Toward the end, he lost sight of his mother, and he did shed some real tears but it was a very brief moment, Fiona Sharkie, the executive director of the Australian anti-smoking organization that produced the ad, told TODAYs Matt Lauer Friday. Within seconds of those tears being shed, he was in his mothers arms and giggling.

The ad is part of a series of graphic — some would say disturbing — anti-smoking television commercials being run in New York City by the department of health.

In the ad, the little boy, identified by Sharkie only by his first name, Alexander, is shown standing alone in a train station while separated from his mother. The mother in the ad, identified as Annette, is Alexanders real-life mom.

When he loses sight of his mother, his look of puzzlement turns into abject fear as tears roll down his face. A voice-over then says, This is how your child feels after losing you for a minute. Just imagine if they lost you for life.

Sharkie, who was speaking from Victoria, Australia, said Annette and Alexander rehearsed the ad several times. He cried only during the one take that was shot, when Annette slipped out of sight in the crowd of some 150 actors and production personnel on the set. Five cameras were used to capture the moment, and Sharkie said that Australian child-protection officials were on the set at all times to ensure that Alexander was not mistreated or harmed.

Alex is a terrific young actor and he and his mother Annette are a terrific acting team. This was an ad that we made with enormous sensitivity, Sharkie told Lauer. Both Alex and his mother were fully briefed and rehearsed the whole commercial before we made it.

Sharkie insisted that the boy, who has made other commercials, was acting, but also acknowledged that his tears were real.

Is it ever OK to traumatize a little boy, even if its to make an important point? Lauer asked her.

We had no intention of traumatizing the child at all and that really wasnt the case, Sharkie replied. We had child protection on the set the whole time. We worked with a director that was very insistent on making just one shot.

Sharkies organization is called Quit. She said the ad, which first ran last fall in Victoria, provoked similar debate there as it has in New York.

New York City health officials hope the ad helps them convince 20,000 smokers to kick the habit.

Fiona Sharkie, the executive director of the Australian anti-smoking organization, defended the ad her agency produced.
Along with the ad, a new 62-cents-a-pack federal tax has pushed the price of cigarettes in the Big Apple upward of $10 a pack, hitting smokers squarely in the pocketbook.

But, Lauer told Sharkie, the question remains: Wheres the line? If its OK to bring a child to tears, is it OK to hurt a child a little bit?

Quit would never be part of something deliberately harming a child, Sharkie said. We made this commercial within the letter of the law.
By Mike Celizic
TODAYShow.com contributor

Category:

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[bluehachiroku]

Over the years I've come across kids just like this. I think we've all been this little boy at least once in our lives and that's one of the targets they're aiming for,besides our natural instinct to help our young. But their point is spot on. I lost my Dad to cancer from smoking. We reckon it took him 20 years too early.

[klambify]

Will you all WAKE UP???? It's not about YOU or what YOU would do!!! You YOU YOU!! It's to wake you up about who is left behind when a parent PERMANENTLY DISAPPEARS for a completely preventable reason: ie DEATH due to smoking (as my mother did). Get over yourselves and look around!!! EVERY child who has a parent who smokes could be THIS child!!

[MsMisslivvy]

poor boy x

[megclements]

Idiots the ad isn't for the mom going out to smoke! It's that the mom died because she was smoking!! Duhh

[Detroit8V92tta]

@MoejoTheGreat Yep, that's right. The dictator Fiona Sharkie and her cronies have taken away all our rights. The non-smokers have got it their way now. Once this agenda is completed they will need something else to ruin. Just wait until dictator Sharkie gets her teeth into an anti drinking agenda. Then we are all fucked. She has absolutely no right to tell me how I should live my life. She should piss off.

[bulldawg819]

As horrible as I think it is that they put this child through this rather than just hiring some child actor to cry on camera I think that many of you idiots have misunderstood the ad. The mother did not just leave the child to go have a cigarette. They were trying to say that the mother died from smoking. And if the child gets that disappointed over being left alone for a minute, how is he going to feel when he loses his parent FOREVER because they died from smoking.

[MoejoTheGreat]

The anti-smoker nannies have stooped to a new low. Terrorizing a young child to promote their agenda. Those involved with the production of this ad should be jailed for child abuse. Bad enough they want to take our rights away, now they are abusing children to do it.

[ash81905]

@hackersrule1--that's not the point of this ad, if you keep smoking you COULD die, and he wouldn't have his mother around anymore. He cried that much when he got separated from her for 5 minutes, IMAGINE how he would feel if he lost her from smoking. That's what they mean.

[SuperMok100]

I was soooo near to cry :'( -3 [•_•]-(i hate the mom)

[hackersrule1]

Alright, so, if I were to go outside to smoke, I would take the kid with me, not leave him alone in the train station, who could go anywhere, and anyone could take him, ... retarded ad

[9braden]

so so so so so so so so so so so so so sad

[ThePrincessstory]

@NudistInTheRye

Actually i showed this video to my uncle (he smokes) and he just had a kid (two yrs old).

he promised me he is trying hard

i have been trying him to quit since i was 7