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Tobacco firms object to ad ban
The government’s recent decision to ban online cigarette advertising has restricted even further the space available for tobacco companies to promote their products
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span>The government’s recent decision to ban online cigarette advertising has restricted even further the space available for tobacco companies to promote their products.
On Thursday, the Communications and Information Ministry announced that it had taken down at least 114 accounts on Facebook, Instagram and YouTube that violated the 2009 Health Law, which prohibits “cigarette promotions that display the image of a cigarette”.
Tobacco companies have expressed their objection to the ban.
Head of the media center department of the Indonesian Tobacco Society Alliance (AMTI), Hananto Wibisono, said producers had always supported government regulations but they also hoped the government would reconsider regulations that could negatively impact the tobacco industry and harm cigarette production and related businesses.
“We ask the government to also consider the sustainability of tobacco industry stakeholders when implementing policies and making regulations that could affect farmers, workers and businesses […] and also involve tobacco industry stakeholders in the formulation of policies that could affect the sustainability of the tobacco industry,” Hananto told The Jakarta Post on Friday.
He also highlighted how the tobacco control campaign had reduced the number of tobacco producers.
Recent government data has shown that the number of small and medium businesses in the tobacco industry shrank from 2,540 in 2011 to 487 in 2017.
Hananto said the declining number of tobacco producers had also had a big impact on reducing the number of smokers.
The decision to ban online cigarette advertising was regarded as pivotal by the Health Ministry in reducing the prevalence of young smokers.
On Monday, in her letter to the communications and information minister requesting a ban on cigarette advertising on the internet, Health Minister Nila Moeloek cited the 2018 Basic Health Survey that showed that the prevalence of young smokers aged 10 to 18 years old had increased from 7.2 percent in 2013 to 9.1 percent in 2018.
Separately, marketing expert Yuswohady said the government’s decision to ban online advertising was the right move as young people spent more time on the internet than on other media.
“The ban could prevent new generations from becoming young smokers. Nowadays, more and more companies have left conventional media to promote their products, they’ve shifted to the growing online media, so the ban could prevent more people who don’t smoke from starting,” Yuswohady said.
However, he added that the ban would have little effect on people who are already smokers as they are already addicted and a lack of advertisements on the internet would not change their behavior.
“And we still have so many outlets for buying cigarettes. We still can find them easily everywhere. As long as we still have these outlets it will remain difficult to reduce the number of smokers,” he said.
Responding to the online cigarette advertisement ban, several social media giants such as Instagram and Facebook pointed out that they already had advertising policies that forbade any tobacco ads on their platforms.
“We do not allow any advertisement of tobacco products and tobacco-related equipment,” Facebook Indonesia spokesperson, Putri Dewanti, said.
A study conducted by the London School of Public Relations in five cities on Java Island in 2018 showed that cigarette advertising on the internet had a strong influence on teenagers.
The study found that 10 percent of teenagers — who did not smoke — would have the tendency to smoke after seeing cigarette advertisements on the web.
Most teenagers are exposed to cigarette ads on YouTube (80.3 percent), websites (58.4 percent), Instagram (57.2 percent) and online games (36.4 percent).
About 17 percent of Indonesian internet users are between 13 and 18 years old, according to 2017 data from the Association of Indonesian Internet Providers.
