I haven't seen those so-called "disgusting" anti-smoking commercials yet. Do I even want to? A kid got nightmares watching the ads. Now mommy's complaining.

Let me say something. Another kid (me) once watched a child abuse commercial. It has a doll sitting in the corner of a dark empty room. In the background, the cries of a baby. Then a whipping sound, and the doll magically gets a very bad scar on the face. More whips, more bloody scars. The cries get louder and louder and louder. Then, everything stops. Close up to the bloodied scar-filled face of the doll. Fade to black. Roll child abuse message.

Cue one tramautised MSF.

But my dad, he made me watch the ad whenever I tried to run away when the ad comes on TV. One of his ways to toughen my mind. I'm glad he did, now it's a little hard for wanton violence to faze me.

Two points to this story: one, the aforementioned mommy needs to stop complaining and tell the kid to stop being a pussy and suck it up. Odds are, like the doll ad made me convulse in fury everytime I see a child abuse headline, so will this kid flush down every ciggie he comes across. He wouldn't want teeth like a hobo or even worse, a Brit, right?

Two, like I said, I haven't seen the ads, so I can't judge them, but the doll ad proves that if done right, with the right mood, lighting, sound, ads can be very effective tools. For so-called "shock" ads, visual shocks just isn't enough. It has to stick in your mind. Doll getting whipped scars without seeing the actual whips while the cries of a baby gets even more hysterical, that stuck in my mind even nearly two decades after that ad aired, that's how powerful that commercial is.

But what do I know? I'm not a media student. But dammit, I'm going to make sure that changes when I leave NS.

Personally, I prefer the more humorous type of anti-smoking ad.