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Idol’s Concert Flies Into Smoking Storm
Anita Rachman & Nurfika Osman | April 22, 2010

Kelly Clarkson doing her bit for the tobacco industry. The cigarette sponsorship of her upcoming concert in Jakarta has sparked debate and reminder from Muhammadiyah that smoking and anything associated with it is forbidden under Islamic law. (JG Photo/Afriadi Hikmal) Kelly Clarkson doing her bit for the tobacco industry. The cigarette sponsorship of her upcoming concert in Jakarta has sparked debate and reminder from Muhammadiyah that smoking and anything associated with it is forbidden under Islamic law. (JG Photo/Afriadi Hikmal)
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Roland
11:59am Apr 22, 2010

TV prime time (but also occasionally during the day) all Indonesian channels brainwash daily their audience with advertisements every 10 minutes or so, many of them promoting various cigarette brands. These commercials are obviously created by expensive advertisement companies and the common subtle promise is usually social success, adventure and sports. So for heavens sake, why make suddenly such a fuss about this one sponsored concert, all over Indonesia sponsored sport events, billboards, radio ads, TV commercials are hammering their message into the brains anyhow.

Prohibit cigarette ads in the first place...but of course I can imagine that huge financial contributions of tobacco companies towards people responsible to stop this nonsense and to to make a decision in this regard are distributed periodically...

Artemus Jones
12:03am Apr 22, 2010

I don't think Kelly Clarkson has been singled out by Muhammadiyah, just that it's capitalizing on her fame - particularly with young people - and the stir this is causing in the US to ram its point home. It hasn't "banned" her, just the concert because of the cigarette advertising.

Whether or not Clarkson knows she is being used to promote cigarettes is another thing, and I hope she takes Alicia Keys' stand - which I think was the first and only time an artist, local or foreign, has stood up to the might of the Indonesian tobacco companies - and threatens to quit the tour if the cigarette advertising isn't removed.

papaD
5:43pm Apr 21, 2010

So the difference between this and (e.g) javajazz is...??

Simon P
5:35pm Apr 21, 2010

heh heh. Web Ed?

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A planned concert here by chart-topping US singer Kelly Clarkson has come up against a barrage of opposition from religious groups and anti-smoking advocates because it is being sponsored by a tobacco company.

The concert, scheduled to be held at the Senayan Indoor Tennis Stadium on April 29, has been rocked by criticism after it became clear that PT Djarum tobacco company and its LA Lights cigarette brand were backing it.

Huge billboards promoting the concert feature the Grammy Award winner — who shot to fame after winning the first season of American Idol — with a logo of the LA Lights cigarettes just above her head.

Muhammadiyah, the country’s second-largest Islamic group with about 30 million members, has declared smoking haram, or forbidden under Islam. It said all things related to smoking — including the concert — were also forbidden. “We do not need to put out another fatwa [religious edict] on a thing that is already clear,” Yunahar Ilyas, who heads Muhammadiyah’s fatwa department, told the Jakarta Globe.

Even the Indonesian Council of Ulema (MUI), which considers smoking undesirable but not forbidden, says young people would be wise to avoid the concert that was certain to be used to promote the habit.

“But we cannot directly put a haram fatwa on the concert,” said Amidhan, head of MUI’s fatwa body. “Smoking and attending a concert sponsored by cigarette companies are two different things.”

Arwani Faishal, deputy chairman of the religious affairs body of Nahdlatul Ulama, the country’s largest Muslim organization, also said that it would be unwise to ban the concert just because tobacco companies were among the sponsors.

“It would be different if the concert was funded by money from gambling, then we could directly ban that,” he said.

Adrie Subono, the head of concert promoter JAVA Musikindo, could not be immediately reached for comment but on the social networking Web site Twitter he wrote that “2,513 of my hairs fell out, I have a headache.”

LA Lights and Kelly Clarkson’s management company were also not immediately available for comment.

The cigarette sponsorship has gained attention not only locally but worldwide, with anti-smoking advocates calling on Clarkson to drop the sponsorship of Indonesia’s third-largest tobacco company.

Clarkson’s Facebook account has been flooded with calls from her fans for her to ditch the sponsorship to show her support for the fight against smoking.

“Indonesia is a big concern, a big epidemic, a big population, and very little control,” said Dr. Prabhat Jha, a tobacco-control expert at the University of Toronto’s Center for Global Health Research. “They have a chaotic taxation and regulatory structure. They have made the mistake of letting the Marlboro Man into the country.”

Two years ago, a tobacco affiliate of US-based Philip Morris International, which dominates Indonesia’s tobacco market, removed its logo from ads promoting an Alicia Keys concert in Jakarta after the singer publicly denounced the sponsorship and apologized to her fans.

“If Kelly Clarkson goes ahead with the concert, she is by choice being a spokesman for the tobacco industry and helping them to market to children,” said Matt Myers, president of the US-based Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids.

Various studies have shown that around a third of the country’s roughly 230 million people are smokers and that cigarette consumption has been on the rise in the past few years.



Additional reporting from AP