US singer Kelly Clarkson said yesterday she was not aware a tobacco company was sponsoring her concert in Indonesia and refused to cancel the show despite appeals from anti-smoking groups.
In a statement on her blog headlined “Jakarta mishap,” the former American Idol winner said she was being “used as some kind of political pawn” and rejected criticism she was promoting smoking to her young fans.
“So ... my morning began with finding out that I am all over billboards, TV ads and other media formats alongside a tobacco company who unbeknownst to me is sponsoring my Jakarta date on my current tour,” she wrote. “I was not made aware of this and am in no way an advocate or an ambassador for youth smoking. I’m not even a smoker, nor have I ever been.”
She said her “only option” was to cancel the show, but she could not justify “penalizing my fans for someone else’s oversight.”
“This is a lose-lose situation for me and I am not happy about it, but the damage has been done and I refuse to cancel on my fans,” she said. “I think the hardest part of situations like this is getting personally attacked for something I was completely unaware of and being used as some kind of political pawn.”
The pop singer, who will perform in the Indonesian capital on April 29, has appeared on billboards and television ads beneath a prominent cigarette brand logo.
Clarkson made no mention of what she would do about the tobacco marketing, but concert promoter Adrie Subono said the show would go ahead without the cigarette company’s sponsorship.
“The show will go on without LA Lights as the sponsor,” he said, referring to a cigarette brand belonging to local producer PT Djarum.
He declined to say whether Clarkson had dropped Djarum or if the company, Indonesia’s third-biggest tobacco firm, had pulled out voluntarily.
“Many parties are involved ... there was consultation with the sponsor, [Clarkson’s] agent and our management, among others. The decision is not solely ours,” he said.
At least one billboard in the town of Bogor, outside Jakarta, was taken down yesterday and the cigarette logo no longer appeared in connection with Clarkson material on the promoter’s Web site.
The tobacco sponsorship has been condemned by the Indonesian National Commission on Child Protection, the Southeast Asia Tobacco Control Alliance, the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids and an Indonesian Muslim organization.
Most fans commenting on Clarkson’s Web site expressed unconditional support, but some urged her to follow the example of Alicia Keys, who found herself in a similar predicament in Indonesia two years ago.
The Grammy award winner went on with the show, but dropped the cigarette sponsorship and apologized unequivocally to her supporters.
According to WHO statistics, Indonesia is a booming market for tobacco companies. Cigarette consumption in the Southeast Asian archipelago of 234 million people soared 47 percent in the 1990s.
Almost 70 percent of men over 20 years of age smoke and regular smoking among boys aged 15 to 19 increased from 36.8 percent in 1997 to 42.6 percent in 2000.
Commission for Indonesian Child Protection head Hadi Supeno urged the government to ban all tobacco advertising including sponsorships.
Some tobacco-sponsored events required people to buy cigarettes instead of tickets, child protection official Heru Kasidi said.
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