A three-year old boy is made to cry in this anti-smoking commercial, outraging viewers.
Advertising mogul Donny Deutsch applauded the spot, and dismisses the crying, saying, “Maybe sometimes they make a kid cry, but if it saves 20,000 lives for five seconds of crying, I’ll take it.”
So, how far should commercials go to implore smokers to quit?
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{ 6 comments }
Look at the ad’s funding source to get a glimpse of that same rational (’ends justifying means’) applied to nationalized health care, among other industries.
Chuck Brooks
FutureWare SCG
I agree – this was a very distrubing ad. However, I think anything besides a gun to their head to make people quit smoking is good.
Are you kidding? We need to start *recruiting* smokers! Who else is going to pay for that kid’s “free” health care?
This was the first thing I saw this morning while watching the news. I have taken to turning off a station when I get one of these manipulative anti-smoking advertisements. They are invasive and unpleasant, and those who believe that the means is justified by the ends should consider the selective moralism involved in this focus on one behavior in a culture of machines, pollution, war, etc. I no longer smoke, but I don’t believe it’s the root of all evil in our culture, and I don’t begrudge someone who needs to relax the occasional cigarette.
I don’t have any problem with ads like this one. (And I’ll bet many of the people complaining have no trouble accepting advertising techniques when it comes to their favorite politician). It’s good to see advertising put to good use for once.
I think it’s a good technique and perhaps they should take it a step further and submit it to video sites like Adwido and YouTube to grab some Internet market support.
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