Does the ‘Lost Little Boy’ Anti-Smoking Ad Go Too Far?

Unclear if acting or left alone? How about you do some reporting instead of conjecture? This is a story if he was actually left alone instead of acting, however I have a feeling this was purposefully not investigated just so that innuendo could be dropped like it has. Get some facts and then make a big deal out of it.

I thought the little boy was lost because of his mother was shooting heroine up her veins, frying her brains on crack or something like this. Or because drinking her brains. Not because smoking a cigarette. I wish to see such a similarly aggressive (if not much more aggressive) campaign against drugs and drinking. Both kill people (not to speak people killing for a fix, pumping money to drug dealers and their armies).

It’s cool, can silent scream run too?

At last an intelligent TV ad! This is what is needed to get attention to one of our most important health problems. (And it took some Aussies to do it!) Way to go, NY! Let’s see more all around this sad country.

This add is totally appropriate. I remember being lost briefly from my mother as a child and this is exactly how I felt. Imagine losing her forever due to an avoidable, disgusting habit.
Give us more. Selfish smokers are causing a health crisis in their children. Maybe they’ll stop for the kids.

I agree with those who say smokers can cause a lot of damage to themselves AND to their families. There really isn’t any arguing that smoking can cause real problems.
But where is the outrage exhibited by the rabid anti-smokers when it comes to other habits, practices and lifestyles that cause similar problems.
Obesity, sedentary lifestyles, alcohol consumption, speeding……the list could go on forever. Apparently the outrage is reserved for the smokers while ignoring more “popular” vices.

This is a truth about smoking and probably more effective than any gross out stuff, at least to parents. It’s not even approaching “over the line”.
Smoking is a physical addiction that typically starts before you’re 15 and not a “personal choice” you make as an adult. The choice to quit, however, is. And it requires incredible willpower and sacrifice. Your children’s happiness and future are even stronger motivations than your own happiness and life. So I applaud this ad.

I think this is a totally appropriate ad and shows the emotions of losing a parent to tobacco-related illnesses.
While there are other diseases and causes for deaths at an early age, and it’s never easy to lose a parent, this really hits home to me personally.
My own father died from pancreatic cancer on November 6, 1963, the same month that President Kennedy was assassinated. My father was 39 years old when he died. My father had been a smoker since his teens. In those days the doctors did not know that smoking was a risk factor for pancreatic cancer. They now know that it is the main risk factor for it.
I was 13 when my dad died. My two brothers were 9 and 11 years old and my sister was only 8.
Our dad was not at any of our graduations, weddings and never knew any of his grandchildren. My neices and nephews have always been sad that they never knew their grandfather.
My sister started smoking at the age of 13. She died on Oct. 16, 1999 from lung cancer. Her two sons were only 14 and 17 when she died. She wasn’t at their high school/colleges graduations and missed her youngest son’s recent wedding.
My mother also died recently from a smoking-related death. While she was in her 80s, it doesn’t make it any easier to cope with her death.
Yes, you have to die from something, as many people claim, you don’t have to die from tobacco-related deaths if you never start smoking or quit before it’s too late.
I have also lost other family members, related both by blood as well as marriage to tobacco-related illnesses.
Smoking is a very emotional subject for me and I realize alcohol and obesity are problems for some people, but it doesn’t lessen the importance of tobacco-related illnesses and deaths.

WOW!!! That seems to be going way to far. If you want to communicate to the American people stop with the bullsh*t commercials. We can think for ourselves, & in this economy, what would posess a company to spend that much money on noninformative garbage. Have you ever noticed how much “they” blame smoking on cancer? It is true according to studies, but what about everything else from microwaves to cell phones to all other toxins in the air around power lines and nuclear plants? This IS a free country and if a FREE american wants to smoke isn’t it their right as american citizens?

I thought the ad was perfectly acceptable and very powerful. I did not see it as crossing any lines at all. I think the marketing team did a great job with this ad. Too bad it is not being shown in the USA.

It does not cross the line. It’s a powerful message.

My Dad did die cancer due to smokng. Had the hole in the throat too. I was 40, but it still sucks!! It’s not hard to quit, IF you really want too. I smoked for 10 years and quit cold turkey. Never to return again to that nasty habit.

This ad make no impression one way or the other on me. It is just what it is, an advertisement with paid people doing the acting. Who cares about it! Smoker or non smoker there is one thing that people need to understand and that is “consideration” for the other party. Smokers should be considerate enough to respect non smokers space, views and rights. By the SAME TOKEN, non smokers need to know where their limitiations are. THEY too need to respect a persons right to choice and, lets say smoke in their own home, in designated smoking areas and wherever it is LEGAL. Give each other space and NO ONE SIDE DICTATE TO THE OTHER WHAT TO DO.

Great ad. Hard to understand why anyone would think is is over the line. I think there are all kinds of preventable injuries/illnesses that need our attention (smoking is just one of them). This is an important topic. Most of all our healthcare dollars goes to treating preventable diseases.

I have to say it is a very realistic depiction. My father died of lung cancer when I was five years old. I am now 35, married, with two children and not only do I miss him still – he has missed out on many things in my life. Maybe people will think about that more – that they may not be there because of something they have control over.

“What about an ad with the parent telling the kid he can’t have food & milk BECAUSE they need to buy cigarettes!!” – Denisea213
L O L
That’s a good one Denisea.
These cigarette smokers pay a lot of taxes on their product.
The States need that revenue.
Then there’s the Darwinistic Factor of survival of the fittest which is always a good thing.
I’m thinking we should just leave the smokers alone and stop running ads against smoking at all.

That commercial is hilarious!

The commercial is good however it did not motivate me to quit smoking. One has to want it and then do it. If you are not ready to quit an ad won’t make you do it.

This ad is right on target.

A powerful ad. Now to get it done nationwide

I’ve heard about the “poor child” all day, but just saw the ad. Much tamer than the liberal feel-good media would have you believe. Thank God the child wasn’t crying because he was spanked!

That was “GASP spanked!”, indicating sarcasm. Somehow the “GASP” went away.

Can we do that same advertisement with a fat chick and a candy bar?
Let’s tax JUNK FOOD! Imagine, a $9.00 bag of M&M’s!
How about the same advertisement with a bottle of conventional body soap that shows the risks of the chemicals used that cause breast cancer, ovarian cancer, uterine cancer, asthma, hypothyroidism, diabetes, birth defects, etc.
Oops, must be politically correct and don’t want to upset the chemical companies who claim, just like the tobacco companies did, that their toxins are safe – even when dermally absorbed.
phthalates. triclosan. soy. synthetic fragrances. synthetic colorants. chemicals in household cleaning products. propellants in spray products.
Household products harm and kill the kids at a higher rate through accidental ingestion than choosing to use tobacco products kill adults. Where’s an ad for that?

The ad is real. This is the way I felt when I lost my father to lung cancer when I was a young boy. It was a horrible blow to myself and my family to lose such a wonderful man so young. He smoked a couple packs a day and thought nothing of his habit. There are real and terrible consequences.

The ad goes to far and represents an intrusion of government into personal life choices. I can still hear oxygen molecules scream as they are sucked in by humans and transformed into CO2 to raise global warming concerns. Humans are parasites and kill other living things.

I have NO problem with this ad. Smoking does kill and people need to realize that family members will be left behind. I do think that more than likely your “kids” will be older when you die but the message is the same. Smoking is getting very expensive and it does kill. Your best bet is to never start smoking but if you do you should try to quit.

whats next banning fat people..funny i watched a rally against smokeing and 80% of the people there were very overwieght,how about they lose soem wieght and live a good life before telling us smokers how to live…i smoke i also jog 5 miles everyday and go to gym three times a week i could run circles around these fat anti-smokeing group.

Sure seems to have gotten alot of attention and people talking. So I guess it worked.

That was so depressing I need a smoke

I am not a parent, but this ad upsets me because ALL parents worry about not living to take care of their kids. Can you imagine the distress caused to somebody terminally ill with young children? The intention is excellent the message too vague and potentially devastating to a lot of innocent people.

thoughtxchange—so you wouldbe fine with a fed.law banning smokeing? if so that si un-american as it gets..telling people how to live there lives..

This is really good and I agree 100%.Stop smoking…

I would like to see the rich CEO’s in background laughing at smokers who who pay all that money.

Too far!!! Period. Make your case but dont use the vulnerability of children to help this or any cause. If my child was lost even for a minute, I might grab a smoke to ease my tensions to prevent me from going hysterical. And this from a non-smoker.

here here!!!! do not use kids for your anti-american adds.

I can’t think of a better way to get through to parents that their smoking is hurting their children in many more ways than just one. My Mom lost her Dad to lung cancer when she was only six years old. I don’t think there is a way to go to far to get through to people that smoking is killing them and their second hand smoke is killing others.

Beyond sick!!! How are they going to pay for all the health programs without smokers?

This ad is “totally” disgusting! The tobacco companies should be ashamed of themselves. They have gone “too” far.

Whatever it takes to make people wakes up and think about what they are doing to their body it a good thing…. ABC go to Canada to see what really works to stop people from smoking…. Why do they say Canada is so clean? ….. We need to look outside of the US to see what really works because we do not have a clue or the will.

Its completly inappropriate. No child not even a child actor should be made to cry. That is a form of child abuse. You don’t think of the message to quite smoking all you can think of is that poor child crying. It is NOT the proper image. If you want to pick on smoker fine just leave the poor children alone. If you really want people to stop smoking make it eaiser to stop. A carton of cigarettes is cheaper than the help avaliable to stop. Dont use kids to get people to stop that is just plain our WRONG!!!!!!!!!!!!

hank—yep so stay out planes cars and dont go to work dont eat fat food.you will die and leave behind people.

hank—think of what the candy company and beef companies have done to us, how about the fast food comapnies with there evil foods…shoudl we make laws to ban all bad things,lets ban war and swimming you might drown…

My parents smoked when it was ‘fashionable’. My father had to have radiation therapy for throat cancer. My Mother was the Patient-Relations co-ordinator for M. D. Anderson in Houston for 13 years. My Step-father (who also smoked) was a bronchial specialist at Anderson. I was in Anderson to see my Mother one day when an elderly woman (before smoking bans) got on the elvator with me. She had a gauze cover over her trach – she lifted the gauze and put a cigarette to the hole in her throat. That cured me – that needs to be put on TV. By the way, my Mother died from COPD – she stopped smoking at 70.

i am sick of people and government trying to tell me how to live.

when all these fat slobs telling me to qyite smokeing stop stuffing there fat ugly faces then i will quit smokeing..

sory to see the sarcasm from T. In 1957 I was 11 and visited my father at Lenox Hill Hospital 3 days after they cut his right lung out. He lived 30 more years and never touched another cigarette. He died of lung cancer. Neither of us was ever afraid to fly or walk outside or eat fast food. I hope you never spend 7 months going to a ward of cancer victims and watch them slowly die. Some with lung cancer sit in the waiting room and smoke or they did in 1986, with the IV dripping medicine into them.
I don’t take life as you flippantly. Legislation doesn’t mean a thing. I still miss my father and think about how he died. His birthday is April 13th the day he died.

hank—what is next? will we fight agaisnt fat foods will our government put us in jail if we are fat..give them a inch and they take a mile—–STAY OUT OF MY LIFE!!!!!!

T- That is your decision. Not my business. That is why I said the government can’t legislate it away. Life is about risks. If you want to add them to yourself in the face of known medical fact that is your decision. If you have one child or grandchild this ad is saying when your gone they will be affected. You won’t know the difference. I have 4 grandchildren that I want to see grow up and enjoy life. I want to stack the odds in my favor as best I can. My decision.

Perhaps the children of parents who smoke(d) should have the say in what’s too graphic or emotionally wrenching. My mother was a heavy smoker until she was forced to go on 100% oxygen for the last five years of her life. By that time, she was a mere shell of the woman she had been.
We miss her every day, and her youngest grandchildren never knew her. While I miss my mom, I’m also angry with her because her addiction was more important to her than her family. Who knows what health problems we’ll have as adults because of that exposure to second hand smoke?
That really is the harsh reality, and I’m appalled when I see parents smoking around their children.

T I a not in your life. All I have said is the ad is great, straight to the point on a personal level. Must have hit home for you to get so strong in your response. Talk about the ad and it’s message. By the way you can turn your tv off or switch channels.
You have the right to decide what will kill you.

I have so many issues with this anti-smoking thing. As a child of the 50/60′s we were fed the ads on t.v. Why? because the tax base on the tobacco industry was too good. It was good to smoke then. 40 years later we are the nations Pariahs. The Country that sold and made millions on the taxes of tobacco is now taxing us to literal death.
They have said that Tobacco is just as addictive as Heroin. They have methadone clinics for illegal drug addicts, they have nothing for us. I can’t go get a shot of something that will take away the need for nicotine. Why? Because we smokers are functioning taxpayers. Addicts rarely are.
This leads me to another question. Why are we passing laws for Medical Marijuana? Perhaps a new way to get taxes on others misfortuine? A way to tax, to death, a person who is sick and needs help that is not currently available?
This Country has an ailment. There is no cure for greed.

T – this is not about fat people. I am overweight and understand the health risk. Probably 75 % of the people in the US are overweight. I have not made a concious choice to be overweight. I have made a choice not to smoke. We all have choices in life and most of us do things that afect our health and find it hard to stop the overeating or smoking. I don’t have to smoke to live. I do have to eat to live and it is hard to cut back on what I eat as I have gotten older. Therefore I am fat.
Again we cannot all be perfect and their are lots of things in life that could have ads against them. None more easy to correct than smoking…the emotional crutch…that becomes killingly addictive. You can’t stop things that will affect you like diabetes, high blood pressure, parkinsons, alzheimers and many more. You can stop smoking.

The creators of these ads obviously have no comprehendion of addiction. Addiction is stronger than this and other ads. It is stronger than health threats or potential harm to loved ones. If DHHS wants to effectively reduce the numbers of smokers then learn about the dynamics of addiction. I am a recovering alcoholic with 18 years sober. I have not been ABLE to put down the cigarettes; no matter the cost, health threats or damage to myself or my lovely teenager. I want to quit because I want to breath better, feel better, perform physical activities and save the $150 per month I spend on these little tyrants.

O.k., well first this web site is a little screwed up. My post is showing as Jan and the next with my name. We all do things that are unhealthy for ourselves. I don’t smoke around my kids or my grandkids. I learned a long time ago not to make opinions about any one else. You have no idea what they may be going through or if they have a health issue. But believe me when someone how is obviously 100 pounds overweight tells me how bad smoking is, I have a problem with that. One is no less stupiid than the other.

I imagine many are so upset because the ad hits home. It’s evident that this is an effective add. And I can see that a child seeing that might say something to his/her mom like, “Mom, I don’t want to lose you. Please don’t smoke.”

Great simple message. Spot on. Please also remember us non-smokers are forced to breath in your poison as well.

People can’t stand watching it faked in a commercial – but it happens for REAL all the time, to so many children. This is a simple truth – when you smoke – just like when you choose to take any risk with your life – you are indeed risking making your children grow up without you. And that’s what cigarettes do.

The bloggers shown on the news should have signed Smokers. Only a guilt ridden mother, father, grandparents, guardians, etc.,that smoke would find the advertisement offensive

This commercial is so wrong on so many levels I can’t even believe it was made– to terrorize that little boy for what –to once again send the message that you shouldn’t smoke. Gee I’ve never heard that before.

Note: The advice on factbat.com, for quitting smoking is free, is not a gimmick, and there is nothing to buy…pass it on!

this country was founded on tobacco get over it!
Besides if all us smokers truely were to quit – who would pay the taxes for all of you who have herds of children who need the SCHIP healthcare?

Crossed the line? What about movies with children crying/upset/scared? What about them? Is that crossing the line too? In my book what is worse that this commercial is Funny Videos where children obvisously get hurt, crash, bang, hit, etc. and America laughs at them? Is that better?
As far as smoking is concerned, this and many other addictions–food, drugs, alcohol, etc.–cost all of us in higher medical care costs. Do the math! If you want to harm your health, go ahead. But we, as citizens of this great nation, have the right and responsibility to thwart children from getting addicted to these killers.
I have the right to get upset with smokers when they turn their head and exhale a cloud of smoke in a direction so the smoke will not enter their nostrils and eyes–but right into mine!

Good for you, Stephanie!! Don’t let a STICK run your life!! GET MAD and demand to be in control of your health!! There is a great life after smoking. I know this because I kicked it years ago!! I had to get mad and realize that “my little friend” was not my friend at all!!

Lets see, first we condem the smokers, and then supposedly every one quits,and after that happens were do we get tax money, I know, how about the alchohol, do you the the politicians will go for that?

It doesn’t cross any lines that haven’t been crossed before. The whole public service drug advertising has been to scare or shock so what’s the difference. It’s actually a pretty good ad.

I think this ad is great and really hits on what most smokers just don’t want to think about. Since I was around 10 years old I was always terrified of losing my parents to lung cancer because of their smoking. It took a while, but when I was 41 my mother actually died of what I was so terrified all my life. Her’s was the most senseless death. She was 71 and in perfect health other than the cancer that killed her. This is not something that is OK to do to your child at any age. I feel the terrible loss of losing her everyday and I still feel like that 10 years old losing her mother, because the fear stayed with me everyday until the day she died. When I see parents who have small children and the parents are smoking I feel so badly for the young kids because I know exactly what they are feeling. I would like to say to all parents who smoke that it is NOT OK to put cigarettes ahead of your family. You are actually choosing cigarettes OVER YOUR FAMILY and rubbing it in their faces while you are at it. Would you take a gun to your head in front of our kids??? I think not, so quit smoking for your kids. I know my mom didn’t think ahead to herself on her deathbed and her family watching her take her last breath. I know she wasn’t thinking everytime she had a cigarette how much she was going to tear her family apart with her death. I don’t think she thought of what it would do to my dad and he watched her wife of 55 years slip away. Just because your life ends doesn’t mean everyone forgets about you and goes on happy as can be. I don’t work that way. Dying from lung cancer kills more than the smoker…it kills the family.

I think it is stupid and if they want didn’t wan’t people to smoke they shouldn’t have never evented cigerattes. and they wouldn’t have to try to make people guit smoking

I think the bottom line is…this little boy was TERRIFIED, FOR REAL. Anyone who is a parent or know kids knows that this little guy suffered to make this ad. It matters little to me what the intended “message” was!

When I was a little girl, way back in the 1960′s, anti-smoking campaigns were just being waged. I begged both my parents to quit smoking, but especially my Mom. My pleas went on through high school & college. I hid Mom’s cigarettes numerous times, to no avail. Mom continued to smoke, up to 2 years after her diagnosis of COPD, one of the deleterious effects of smoking. She moved in with my sister for a couple of years, then she moved in with me, the nurse. Shortly after this move, she needed oxygen at home, so I never really left my job as an ICU nurse. This was about 25 years after my pleas for her to stop smoking began. Mom passed away 6 days after her 71st birthday, in 1994, after gasping for air for the previous 2 years. Eating was a tremendous effort, so she was quite thin when she died.
If the controversial ad convinces one person to stop smoking, either for the sake of their kids, or more importantly, themselves, then it has done its job. Lung cancer, pancreatic cancer, and COPD are horrendous diseases associated with smoking. Smokers, think about these potential consequences of this habit & seek assistance to quit.

I think that the commercial terrible. To see that little boy crying, when he probably did not even remember what was happening. I was left when I was little, I and still remember it. You say he won’t remember, but how do you know for sure? I know that smoking is bad for you, but what about drugs, drinking, and overeating. You can go into most any restaurant and drink to your hearts content in front of your children, get into your car and drive. How many people are killed each year from drinking and driving? The jails are full of people drinking and driving and using drugs, and the tax payers have to support them. What about all the domestic violence, murders,robberies, etc. are committed because of drinking. You can see beer commercials on tv, race cars, magazines, etc. So I assume that is ok. How would you like to see an ad showing a dad coming home drunk and beating up his mother and possibly him too? I’ve never heard of that happening from smoking, nor killing people from smoking and driving.

While I think the message to stop smoking is a good one for everyone’s health. To do that to a little boy even for a few moments is terrible. All this to make a buck. That’s a terrible thing for a child to feel for a message that everyone has already heard and is bombarded with it everyday. There’s already a smoking ban in bars and restaurants, I think we know it’s bad.

I quit smoking 6 weeks ago. When I’m stressing, I still want one in the worst way.
After seeing that commericial, I’m done. My kids are worth it.

I really do not see the need to emotionaly effecting a child like this!
Or me as a non smoker! It’s mental abuse! I think they took it a step to far! I turn it off the second the com. starts. YOU”VE GONE TO FAR!!

i love all of you people, im doing an essay on conflicting perspectives and your thoughts and PERSPECTIVES are definately helping me right a band 6 essay :D

The point made should have stopped a few people who smoke in their tracks. Can you imagine leaving your child alone in this world without a mother/guardian because you wont stop smoking

Totally missing the point here. Yes – smoking is very bad. We get it. We’ve had the anti-smoking ads crammed down our throat for years. But for me and my 11 year old daughter, we feel it is horrible that they are exploiting this baby’s obvious – very real fear! Most of us have had that horrible moment as a child and to see it being used for ANY purpose – is very upsetting! That little boy was truly terrified – I don’t care if it was for 5 seconds or 5 hours – it is unexcusable to exploit his fear & momemtary trauma for thier purpose. The mother should be ashamed of herself for knowingly putting her baby through that! She didn’t do it for the “cause” – she did it for cash! I could not imagine EVER puposely causing my children to feel that sense of panic and terror that comes with that feeling of being lost or abandoned! Shame on them all!