Warning: the audio is upsetting.

The director defended this spot after getting a world of crap about it:

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.