Singer Kelly Clarkson sparks smoking debate

Associated Press

BOGOR, Indonesia

Just a few miles after passing a towering Marlboro Man ad, a second billboard off the highway promotes cigarettes with a new American face: Kelly Clarkson.

The former “American Idol” winner invites fans to buy tickets to her upcoming concert in Jakarta, the nation’s capital. The logo of her sponsor is splashed in huge type above her head — the popular Indonesian cigarette brand L.A. Lights. Similar ads also run on TV.

Such in-your-face tobacco advertising has been banned for years in the U.S. and many other countries. But in Indonesia, the world’s fourth-most-populous nation, tobacco companies have virtual free rein to peddle their products, from movies to sports sponsorships and television shows. The country remains one of the last holdouts that has not signed the World Health Organization’s tobacco treaty.

As smoking has declined in many Western countries, it has risen in Indonesia — about 63 percent of all men light up, and one-third of the overall population smokes, an increase of 26 percent since 1995. Smoking-related illnesses kill at least 200,000 annually in a nation of 235 million.

Anti-smoking advocates hope Clarkson will drop the sponsorship of Indonesia’s third-largest tobacco company, Djarum. A growing number of voices have started pleading with the Grammy-winning pop star on her Facebook page.

Two years ago, a tobacco affiliate of U.S.-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.