Jump to full article: Jakarta Globe (id), 2009-05-29
Author: Hera Diani
Intro: From 1950s heartthrob James Dean to Winona Ryder’s chain smoking in “Reality Bites,” to Will Smith lighting up a cigar every time he kills an alien in “Independence Day,” Hollywood never ceases to glamorize smoking. In the past several years, however, thanks to health campaigns, such glamorization has been curbed on television and in the movies.
In Indonesia, though, not only are there no restrictions on heroes and heroines smoking on screen, the country is also one of only two that still allows cigarette advertising. The other is Zimbabwe, which like Indonesia is one of the largest tobacco exporters in the world.
As a result, global cigarette companies, whose sales have experienced a slump in the West, are pushing marketing campaigns in developing Asian countries like Indonesia. Just take a look at the television or walk the streets: cigarette commercials and gigantic cigarette billboards are everywhere.
“The worst thing is, the aggressive marketing is targeted toward youth,” said Widyastuti Soerojo, from the Indonesian Public Health Association’s Tobacco Control Support Center.
The message has not changed: smoking is cool, manly or sexy . . .
Tobacco companies are even targeting children, sponsoring school events and giving out free packs of cigarettes to students. . . .
In a bid to prevent children from smoking, the National Commission for Child Protection (Komnas Anak) has requested the Supreme Court to issue a legal directive confirming that cigarettes contain addictive substances. Should the court do so, the central government would automatically be required to ban the sales of cigarettes to children and pregnant women.
The commission has also filed a judicial review against a 2002 law on broadcasting, on the grounds that cigarette advertising is increasingly targeting children.
Tobacco companies continue to regularly sponsor sports events and pop concerts in Indonesia, despite being banned from doing so in other countries such as the United States.
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