# Is this anti-smoking commerical emotional terrorism? Why are people so freaked out? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [April 6, 2009, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-anti-smoking-commerical-emotional-terrorism-why-are-people-so-freaked-out/492153 "2009-04-06T18:38:30Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2009, 3:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-anti-smoking-commerical-emotional-terrorism-why-are-people-so-freaked-out/492153/21 "2009-04-07T15:22:26Z")
It was completely inappropriate and cruel to traumatize that child like that. I know you all hate children, but sneering it off as a “a kid crying,” shows the ignorance which can only be displayed by non-parents. It’s much more than crying. That kid is confused and terrified. It might only be for a few seconds, but in the moment, that poor kid is scared shitless and doesn’t understand what’s going on. Maybe you’re missing that it was real, not acted. They really let that kid think he’d been ditched like that. There’s no excuse to hurt a child like that. That first moment when his face goes from confusion to fear breaks my heart. As an anti-smoking commercial, its completely ineffective, and will only piss off smokers who are parents. The entire approach of trying to fid ways to say that “smoking is bad, mkay” is a waste of time. Everybody that smokes knowsit’s bad for them. They don’t smoke because they think it’s good for them, they smoke because they’re addicted to nicotine. I know from firts hand experience that the idea of trying to quit is scary because it seems like it would be so difficult and unpleasant, and because the smoker is not convinced he/she could actually be permanently successful. I think it would be much more effective to try an approach which is sympathetic to the addiction and tries to persuade people that quitting isn’t as hard as they think it would be. Wagging fingers and saying “quit” is a waste of time. It’s the quitting process itself that needs to be made more inviting and accessible for them. ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2009, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-anti-smoking-commerical-emotional-terrorism-why-are-people-so-freaked-out/492153/22 "2009-04-07T15:25:09Z")
> [@Freudian\_Slit](#): > > From what I’ve read, the anger is that a kid would be separated from its mother for x amount of time, thus making it cry. I don’t think it’s a huge deal, but a lot of people think it’s unethical or whatnot. This child was not an “it.” This child was a HE. How can you not think it was a big deal? The little boy was traumatized and pained for a fucking ad campaign. ---
**Author:** ![Gary\_Robson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gary_robson/32/3448_2.png) [@Gary\_Robson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gary_Robson)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2009, 3:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-anti-smoking-commerical-emotional-terrorism-why-are-people-so-freaked-out/492153/23 "2009-04-07T15:26:50Z")
I’ve been hearing about this for days now, and this is the first time I’ve seen the ad. I’m seriously underwhelmed. A child actor (yes, actor–not a random kid) cried on screen. Big deal. I put my grandson to bed the other night and left the room and (OH, NOES!) he cried for a couple of minutes. String me up. > [@Anaamika](#): > > Truth in the paper, my ass. This is why all newspapers should go the way of the dodo. :rolleyes:Oh, yes, because _all_ newspapers had that headline, and _no_ blogs, message boards, radio news programs, television news programs, YouTube videos, or other sources of information would ever do such a thing. ETA: **Dio** , you’re missing the hyperbole of these news stories. We have here a child being trained as an actor who works with his mother. This experience won’t traumatize him for life. Hell, if he’s like my kids, he was over it in minutes or hours and wouldn’t remember it a week later unless someone reminded him. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2009, 3:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-anti-smoking-commerical-emotional-terrorism-why-are-people-so-freaked-out/492153/24 "2009-04-07T15:35:13Z")
> [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](#): > > Maybe you’re missing that it was real, not acted. They really let that kid think he’d been ditched like that. There’s no excuse to hurt a child like that. That first moment when his face goes from confusion to fear breaks my heart. Um… how do you know it was real? I see comments in the newspaper article linked to in the OP _insinuating_ that it was, but they don’t actually come out and say it. ---
**Author:** ![Freudian\_Slit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@Freudian\_Slit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Slit)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2009, 3:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-anti-smoking-commerical-emotional-terrorism-why-are-people-so-freaked-out/492153/25 "2009-04-07T15:37:58Z")
> [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](#): > > This child was not an “it.” This child was a HE. > > How can you not think it was a big deal? The little boy was traumatized and pained for a fucking ad campaign. Well, I said “it” talking about children in general. Don’t worry, I’m not going to go pull a Dave Pelzer. I just don’t think it’s that hugely traumatic a thing. Kids are separated from their parents every day–for school or because they have to be left with a babysitter/other family member. And sometimes they cry and carry on because they don’t know where their mom is or where she’s going or why, but they stop. They just happened to get it on tape this time. Also, even if it’s an Australian ad, apparently it’s being played in the U.S. I saw it on TV last night. ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2009, 3:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-anti-smoking-commerical-emotional-terrorism-why-are-people-so-freaked-out/492153/26 "2009-04-07T15:43:42Z")
> [@InvisibleWombat](#): > > ETA: **Dio** , you’re missing the hyperbole of these news stories. We have here a child being trained as an actor who works with his mother. This experience won’t traumatize him for life. Hell, if he’s like my kids, he was over it in minutes or hours and wouldn’t remember it a week later unless someone reminded him. He’s 4 years old. He doesn’t even really know what “acting” _is_. I think it needs to be said again, the kid was _not acting_. He really thought he’d been abandoned in the middle of a crowd. Your comparison to putting your grandson to bed is not apt. He didn’t think he’d just been abandoned on the street. The crying is not the issue. It’s jolting the child emotionally like that that’s the issue. You say he’ll “get over it.” Maybe he will, but that doesn’t justify anything. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Drake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ad7895/32.png) [@Dr.Drake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Drake)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2009, 3:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-anti-smoking-commerical-emotional-terrorism-why-are-people-so-freaked-out/492153/27 "2009-04-07T15:44:48Z")
> [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](#): > > What? Fuming? Why? It’s a pun (fuming = smoking). My guess is that the headline writer went for the neat pun without worrying about the genuine semantic distinctions between merely upset and really fuming. ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2009, 3:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-anti-smoking-commerical-emotional-terrorism-why-are-people-so-freaked-out/492153/28 "2009-04-07T15:45:15Z")
> [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](#): > > Um… how do you know it was real? I see comments in the newspaper article linked to in the OP _insinuating_ that it was, but they don’t actually come out and say it. The director said it. ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2009, 3:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-anti-smoking-commerical-emotional-terrorism-why-are-people-so-freaked-out/492153/29 "2009-04-07T15:47:05Z")
> [@Freudian\_Slit](#): > > Well, I said “it” talking about children in general. Don’t worry, I’m not going to go pull a Dave Pelzer. > > I just don’t think it’s that hugely traumatic a thing. Kids are separated from their parents every day–for school or because they have to be left with a babysitter/other family member. And sometimes they cry and carry on because they don’t know where their mom is or where she’s going or why, but they stop. They just happened to get it on tape this time. > > Also, even if it’s an Australian ad, apparently it’s being played in the U.S. I saw it on TV last night. Kids left in day care are prepared for what’s going to happen, are left in the care of other adults and know that their parents are coming back. They aren’t just abrubtly ditched in the middle of a crowded train station. ---
**Author:** ![Khadaji](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Khadaji](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khadaji)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2009, 4:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-anti-smoking-commerical-emotional-terrorism-why-are-people-so-freaked-out/492153/30 "2009-04-07T16:01:49Z")
They shouldn’t even let kids \*be \*in a public place like that - no wait, that’s a different thread… ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2009, 4:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-anti-smoking-commerical-emotional-terrorism-why-are-people-so-freaked-out/492153/31 "2009-04-07T16:07:51Z")
> [@Harriet\_the\_Spry](#): > > One thing I’d criticize is that, while smoking causes a lot of health problems and deaths, it really doesn’t leave a whole lot of young orphans. Ads about smoking don’t have to be unrealistic to be horrible, so why pick on a fairly uncommon scenario? The horror is more likely to be an older or adult child watching a parent die a painful death from the consequences of smoking. That’s exactly what I thought. A more effective ad would be to show a 50 year old woman holding her grandchild and then vanishing- a lot more realistic. Or show people hacking up their lungs into handkerchiefs, or smoking through stomas, or show radiation burns on the backs of people in lung cancer related therapy, or a montage perhaps of the MANY famous people who have died from smoking, etc.. Most 30 year old women aren’t going to die from smoking unless they already had some health problems. And even then people are going to stop when they feel like it. The $10 per pack prices are probably getting more people to quit in NYC than all the commercials that ever aired combined. ---
**Author:** ![Richard\_Pearse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/richard_pearse/32/13144_2.png) [@Richard\_Pearse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Richard_Pearse)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2009, 2:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-anti-smoking-commerical-emotional-terrorism-why-are-people-so-freaked-out/492153/32 "2009-04-08T02:12:50Z")
A big “meh” from me. I don’t think it’s a particularly good ad. I’m not overly concerned about the boy being left alone for 30 seconds to get him crying, I’m sure they made it up to him afterward. I don’t hate children, I have two of my own. This isn’t something I’d do to my 3 year old, but I wouldn’t do any kind of acting anyway. ---
**Author:** ![shy\_guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a6a055/32.png) [@shy\_guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/shy_guy)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2009, 2:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-anti-smoking-commerical-emotional-terrorism-why-are-people-so-freaked-out/492153/33 "2009-04-08T02:31:40Z")
Man, what? Is that all? Some random kid crying for a minute? Who cares? I was expecting something creepy like those Canadian PSAs about people getting electrocuted. This is also, like, the _least_ creepy anti-smoking PSA New York is subjected to. Most of them tell and show you in graphic detail how smoking will lead to you getting various parts of your body amputated. ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2009, 2:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-anti-smoking-commerical-emotional-terrorism-why-are-people-so-freaked-out/492153/34 "2009-04-08T02:36:06Z")
Jesus, some of you people are heartless. ---
**Author:** ![Rand\_Rover](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/db5fbb/32.png) [@Rand\_Rover](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rand_Rover)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2009, 2:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-anti-smoking-commerical-emotional-terrorism-why-are-people-so-freaked-out/492153/35 "2009-04-08T02:38:55Z")
> [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](#): > > It was completely inappropriate and cruel to traumatize that child like that. I know you all hate children, but sneering it off as a “a kid crying,” shows the ignorance which can only be displayed by non-parents. It’s much more than crying. That kid is confused and terrified. It might only be for a few seconds, but in the moment, that poor kid is scared shitless and doesn’t understand what’s going on. Maybe you’re missing that it was real, not acted. They really let that kid think he’d been ditched like that. There’s no excuse to hurt a child like that. That first moment when his face goes from confusion to fear breaks my heart. After reading this post I was expecting to be shocked. I wasn’t. That dude forgot about it the second his mom came back and is no worse for wear. ---
**Author:** ![Rand\_Rover](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/db5fbb/32.png) [@Rand\_Rover](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rand_Rover)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2009, 2:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-anti-smoking-commerical-emotional-terrorism-why-are-people-so-freaked-out/492153/36 "2009-04-08T02:39:57Z")
> [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](#): > > Jesus, some of you people are heartless. Well we couldn’t have planned that better, I guess. Also, I would suggest that some of the people in this thread are brainless. ---
**Author:** ![Jophiel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jophiel/32/66_2.png) [@Jophiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jophiel)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2009, 5:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-anti-smoking-commerical-emotional-terrorism-why-are-people-so-freaked-out/492153/37 "2009-04-08T05:01:50Z")
> [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](#): > > I’ll say this- that commercial’s a damn sight more effective than those stupid truth commerials. They just make me want to smoke _more._ What that commercial needed was, as soon as the kid started crying, a hip teenager with a megaphone should have come out and started yelling smoking factoids at the child. ---
**Author:** ![Reply](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/reply/32/15952_2.png) [@Reply](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reply)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2009, 5:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-anti-smoking-commerical-emotional-terrorism-why-are-people-so-freaked-out/492153/38 "2009-04-08T05:10:44Z")
> [@Jophiel](#): > > What that commercial needed was, as soon as the kid started crying, a hip teenager with a megaphone should have come out and started yelling smoking factoids at the child. Heh, when the kid was touching his shirt at one point, I thought _for sure_ that he was going to pull out a cig and start smoking. And that the message was going to be “Is this how you want your kid to cope with life?” or similar. ---
**Author:** ![Alex\_Dubinsky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dbc845/32.png) [@Alex\_Dubinsky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alex_Dubinsky)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2009, 5:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-anti-smoking-commerical-emotional-terrorism-why-are-people-so-freaked-out/492153/39 "2009-04-08T05:54:46Z")
> [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](#): > > I know from firts hand experience that the idea of trying to quit is scary because it seems like it would be so difficult and unpleasant, and because the smoker is not convinced he/she could actually be permanently successful. I think it would be much more effective to try an approach which is sympathetic to the addiction and tries to persuade people that quitting isn’t as hard as they think it would be. Wagging fingers and saying “quit” is a waste of time. It’s the quitting process itself that needs to be made more inviting and accessible for them. Very true. “If this is how he feels after a minute, imagine how he’ll feel being left alone for his life.” Eh, it’s only bad the first three days. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Spice\_Weasel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spice_weasel/32/5435_2.png) [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2009, 10:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-anti-smoking-commerical-emotional-terrorism-why-are-people-so-freaked-out/492153/40 "2009-04-08T10:22:13Z")
The only thing offensive about the ad is that this was a real kid they scared on purpose, which is not okay. The message itself is fine. I’m still very surprised they would do this to a young child just to prove something. I agree with **Dio**. Sure he’ll get over it, but that’s not really the point. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-anti-smoking-commerical-emotional-terrorism-why-are-people-so-freaked-out/492153.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-anti-smoking-commerical-emotional-terrorism-why-are-people-so-freaked-out/492153.md?page=3)