Forget Joe Camel: Here’s the new face of young tobacco.
Shocking videos of a 2-year-old Indonesian boy puffing on a cigarette are lighting up the Internet — stunning parents, doctors and anti-smoking advocates worldwide.
Little Ardi Rizal has been puffing away since he was 18 months old, and is now up to two packs a day, his family said. The chain-smoking tot is reportedly so out of shape, he can only get around on a toy car.
Still, his clueless dad insists his son is the picture of health.
“He looks pretty healthy to me. I don’t see the problem,” said Mohammad Rizal, 30.
In one disturbing video, the tot looks disturbingly comfortable with a cigarette in his hand. Ardi can be seen confidently puffing away, and he even seems to know when to blow off ash at the cigarette’s tip before it gets too long.
Officials have of fered to buy Ardi’s parents a new car if he quits smoking, but that’s not likely to hap pen.
The portly tot can’t kick the habit, family mem bers said, because he’ll get angry without his smokes.
“He cries and throws tantrums when we don’t let him smoke,” his father said. “He’s addicted.”
One leading American doctor said Ardi is certainly going to die young.
“The kid will never get to vote,” said Dr. Douglas Zipes, past president of the American College of Cardiology.