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Anti smoking ad too controversial to air
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A debate in New York is raging on how far anti-smoking ads should go to convince smokers to quit, after the health department ran a controversial ad. The Australian made anti-smoking ad shows a young boy crying after being separated from his mother in a shopping mall. The voice over message is, "If this is how your child feels after losing you for a minute, just imagine if they lost you for life."
Matt Lauer, host of NBC's Today show said, ""I was completely glued to it," he said, "but I didn't know if I was glued to it in a good way or a bad way."
Quit Victoria, who produced the ad, said that the real life mother and 4 year old son acting team were not traumatized by the making of the ad but that the tears are real, when the child actor was separated from his mother during the shoot.
Some critics say the ad crossed the line in the war against smoking because the focus is on the exploitation of the child and the anti-smoking message is lost. But advertising executive Donny Deutsch told Lauer, ""Maybe sometimes they make a kid cry, but if it saves 20,000 lives for five seconds of crying, I'll take it."
New South Waleshealth department, along with the New York health department have stopped running the provocative ad.
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