Tobacco advertising in Indonesia: "the defining characteristics for success"

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Abstract
Ethnic-Chinese Indonesian companies control approximately 85% of the market for cigarettes (see Industry Watch pages 89–91). This results in an enormous amount of indigenous advertising. Cigarette advertising visibly saturates Indonesia. Visiting the country in early 1997, I was appalled by the enormous amount of billboard and point-of-sale advertising,5 indigenous and multinational, so prolific it almost became a “natural” part of the Indonesian landscape—figure 1, for example, shows cigarette bunting on a mosque. This is extraordinary considering the importance of Islam in Indonesia and the implications of its commodification. Tobacco has a long history in Indonesia and is rich with cultural symbolism and associations that existed before the advent of advertising.6 The degree and type of advertising in Indonesia is significant because indigenous Indonesian cigarette advertisements appeal to, and reflect, a fascinating collage of specifically Indonesian cultural values and desires. Indigenous advertising exploits and manipulates the traditional cultural associations of tobacco, and exacerbates the smoking “culture” by creating quite new cultural references and themes associated with smoking. Although some of these indigenous advertisements may seem superficially similar to Western multinational cigarette advertisements, such a reading misses the subtleties of Indonesian culture.

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