Smoking commercial more offensive than you think smoking is

I have posted it elsewhere and repost it here. I can not link the video at the moment because it was taken down and I must find a new site. Suffice it to say that a anti-tobacco commercial was made (please read this first paragraph before you go view it, for your mental health) by Ramaa Mosley at Triofilms.com. It is a very emotional video and if you've ever been the victim of child abuse, please be warned that this video may be very...well offensive, but look, be sure you're ready to deal with a possible reliving of your childhood if you watch it. I'm so angry right now I can't hardly think straight. Her post to her right to air such a tasteless commercial is here as well as my own response.

Her post:

I directed this commercial because I believe that people who are complacent enough to continue smoking in front of their children need a huge jolt - something powerful to alter their way of seeing their actions.

People may be furious with the comparison between second hand smoke and child abuse - this is not a surprise. It is extremely disturbing to hear the sounds of the child in the spot being abused - as it should be. It's also extremely disturbing that there are still parents out there who know that smoking causes illness and possible death in children, yet they continue to smoke in front of them!

First off, the definition of abuse is "to treat in a harmful, injurious, or offensive way..." In webster's it's "a corrupt practice or custom".

What happens to babies when they are exposed to cigarette smoke?
--Babies and children who are exposed to cigarette smoke have a much higher incidence of pneumonia, asthma, ear infections, bronchitis, sinus infections, eye irritation, and croup.
--Colic occurs more often in babies whose mothers or fathers smoke or if
a breastfeeding mother smokes.
--Researchers believe that not only does the nicotine transferred into mother's milk upset baby but the passive smoke in the home acts as an irritant.
--Babies of smoking parents fuss more, and mothers who smoke may be less able to cope with a colicky
baby (due to lower levels of prolactin).
--Heavy smoking by breastfeeding moms occasionally causes symptoms in the breastfeeding baby such as nausea, vomiting, abdominal cramps and diarrhea.
--Babies of smoking mothers and fathers have a seven times greater chance of dying from sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS).
--Children of smoking parents have two to three times more visits to the doctor, usually from respiratory infections or allergy-related illnesses.
--Children who are exposed to passive smoke in the home have lower blood levels of HDL, the good cholesterol that helps protect against coronary artery disease.
--Children of smoking parents are more likely to become smokers themselves.
--A recent study found that growing up in a home in which two parents smoked could double the child's risk of lung cancer later in life.

I will confess that I grew up in an extremely abusive household - this commercial is tame in comparison to some of the things I experienced
and witnessed as a child. I also have have known a child raised in a family of smokers who died from cancer. Growing up I was friends with two other children who had terrible asthma and chronic respitory infections - all were raised in families where the parents smoked around the children.

Now that we're adults who is worse? I've gotten counseling, resolved most of the issues with my family and am living a productive life. My
friends still have constant asthma attacks and have had respitory infections that have lead to three bouts with pneumonia. Not to mention the fact that their father passed away ten years ago from lung cancer. So... who is worse off?

No one is is. That's the point. Child abuse is horrible. Smoking around your children is abuse.


As a mother of two small children, I believe that no child should be subjected to abuse of any kind. I'm proud of this spot - I believe it is a powerful statement on the behalf of children. My sincere hope is that parents who are currently smoking around their children will see this spot and make the right decision to NEVER smoke around their child again. We're not telling people to quit smoking - just quit smoking around your child. Take that cigarette outside, don't smoke in the car...

Sincerely,
Ramaa Mosley
Triofilms.com

Ramaa, not all victims of abuse would agree with you at all. I know I don't. I WISH my parents had ONLY smoked around me. That never bothered me at all. It didn't bother my asthma, no one in our family or neighborhood died of lung cancer.

MY children and the children of my neighbors and the children I grew up with are just fine. I did know a girl way back that died of cancer, but she was in a non-smoking family, and even if she wasn't it was a brain tumor, something I have yet to see attributed to smoking. If we were going by anecdotal evidence alone, my evidence would be just as important as yours.

I am also highly offended at your trivialization of my childhood. While YOU may feel that you have some right to do something like this because you are a fellow sufferer does not make it true or even ethical. To think so would to also say that since I was abused I have the right to rob your house and you must acknowledge that right and NOT file charges. Your commercial did shock me into one reaction, reliving briefly my own childhood. What right did you feel you have to do that? Just because you have an agenda you'd like to push? Just because I have overcome my childhood does not mean I want to relive it EVER, especially not for your lies, not even for a few seconds. It takes a lot of work to put that behind you, which you OUGHT to know if your claims are true. Even if the information was factual, it was still in VERY poor taste.

Also, if you people would BOTHER to check the information you've been fed you'd find that many are inaccurate. The WHO found that children of smokers were 22% LESS likely to develop lung cancer. Link here: http://www.obscurious.co.uk/ comp...smoking1440.pdf

You would also find that "there are no documented allergens in cigarette smoke. An asthmatic is potentially allergic to thousands of things, the most common being dust, pollen and pet hair. If cigarette smoke contained allergens there is no possible way millions of asthmatics could possibly be smokers." I am a smoking asthmatic, and the man who wrote the quote is a 40 year smoker and asthmatic, Warren Klass.

You would also find information about SIDS, linked here:
1. a letter from the Sudden Infant Death Syndrome Alliance to John Bazhaff http://www.forces.org/evidence/f...iles/ cohe01.htm in which it's stated very clearly:

"To date, no direct causal relationship has been established. " I encourage you to actually read and understand the whole thing.

2. http://www.data-yard.net/10p2/sids.htm

Brain Stem Abnormality Seen in SIDS Babies, Study Shows

Thank you very much for leaving your company name. I will be sure to include it and your name to every abuse victim who finds this a disgusting, tasteless act. And I can assure you there will be many. Unfortunately, not being as callous as you, I will be sure to let them know that the commercial is extreme and they may want to consider it before viewing it based on their own feelings and whether or not THEY have gotten over their childhood. Not everyone has you know.