Ari’s and Nia’s new movie comes under fire

The Jakarta Post   |  Tue, 06/30/2009 10:15 AM  |  People

JP/P.J. Leo

JAKARTA: Even as the praise is flooding in for their latest children’s flick King, celebrity couple Ari Sihasale and Nia Zulkarnain are being blasted for promoting smoking to kids through the film.

The Indonesian Consumers Foundation (YLKI) and The National Commission for Child Protection (Komnas PA) sent a letter of complaint to Ari and Nia recently, asking them to apologize to the public for the sponsorship involvement of one of the Indonesia’s biggest cigarette companies.

According to YLKI member Tulus Abadi, the appearance of the company’s name and logo in several scenes of the movie could be perceived as a way of introducing cigarettes to children.

“King is a paradox; it contains educational values for children, yet it’s also a massive promotional campaign for a cigarette company,” Tulus says of the badminton-themed movie.

Komnas PA secretary-general Arist Merdeka Sirait agrees, saying the movie is wrongly linking sportsmanship and smoking in the minds of children.

In response to the protests, Nia Zulkarnaen insists there’s nothing wrong with the sponsorship.
“Before we accepted the [sponsorship] offer, we had already studied the whole concept,” say Nia, the owner of Alenia Pictures.

Consequently, Nia says she will focus her energy on helping promote the film, rather than wasting time responding to the complaint.

“They said the movie isn’t worth watching, so our question has to be: have they actually watched it?” — JP

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