If you're as big of a fan of laughing at children as we are, you're going to love Frieke Janssens's photo series, The Beauty of an Ugly Addiction. It's a commentary on how the tobacco industry targets children through their ads, and how susceptible they can be to media influences, She styled and photographed the kids as if they were the Mad Men-esque adults that tobacco companies should be marketing to, then gave them the go ahead to being their journey down the long road to lung cancer. The juxtaposition between the obvious innocence of the children and the affected, "I-don't-give-a-fuck" action of smoking is both jarring and giggle-worthy, blurring the lines between beauty and the ugliness of childhood tobacco addicts. Here's what she had to say about what inspired her to do this.

Adult smokers are the societal norm, so I wanted to isolate the viewer's focus upon the issue of smoking itself. I felt that children smoking would have a surreal impact upon the viewer and compel them to truly see the acts of smoking rather than making assumptions about the person doing the act.

That, and make us LOL at these tiny people trying to be adults. So, without further ado, The Beauty of an Ugly Addiction.

*The cigarettes are totally fake and harmless, stop freaking out.

 


But wait, there's more! Here's a behind-the-scenes video from the shoot (spoiler alert: there is a giant baby smoking for real in it).