The tobacco industry plays a large role in Yogyakarta’s society through its economic value via export and job creation. Due to its power, laws implemented on the tobacco industry allow for flexible design application through mainly advertisement and sponsorship of events and social media influencers. Designers also play a large role in the branding associated with packaging and streamlining of machinery for maximum product output.

• Cigarette marketing in Indonesia is among the most aggressive and innovative in the world. As Sampoerna noted in their annual report in 1995: ‘‘Indonesian companies have almost total freedom to advertise their products in any format and through any communications vehicle in the country’’.  Unfortunately, this statement is as true today as it was over a decade ago. The reported expenditure by the tobacco industry on advertising in Indonesia in 2006 was Rp 1.6 trillion (approximately $178 million US dollars). (Reading culture from tobacco advertisements in Indonesia, p.99)

Having not signed the World Health Organization’s Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (WHO-FCTC), popular Indonesian events such as ‘Java Rockin’Land’ are subject to sponsorship of tobacco companies like Gudang Garam, who promote ‘big name’ western artists under advertisements  designed to be accessed online, through print media and television to attract national attention. Gudang Garam also promoted discounted tickets for students’ months prior to the event in hopes that a large number of there impressionable minds will be subject to high intensities of tobacco advertisement in connection with western ‘star power’. It is this double standard that many affluent western artists and influencers have that is becoming a main contributor to the tobacco industries increasing flourishment in Indonesia and are therefore incurring rebelling protest from Indonesian anti-smoke organisations such as the Southeast Asia Tobacco Control Alliance. 

Through design activism, creative culture makers and designers can combat this tobacco epidemic through actively engaging in functional design that tackles social, environmental and political issues. By engaging campaigns through pop culture’s broad societal umbrella, the effectiveness of anti-smoking design activism would not only stay contemporary but would also allow current understanding and connectedness to become apparent in community settings. Targeting these ideas through event sponsorship and social media campaigns would be noticeable as an active engagement in protest against the tobacco industry’s indifferent marketing tools. ‘Truth’, a successful anti-smoking organisation from the United States, has become well known for its youth campaigns through website design, social media hashtags and contemporary activist approach to increasing trends such as vaping. 

References:

• Rizal Edy Halim, S., Faisal Muttaqin 2015, ‘Warning Labels on Cigarette Packages: A Special Stimulus for Moslem Smokers to Quit Smoking’, viewed 19 December 2019, <https://www.academia.edu/11326076/Warning_Labels_on_Cigarette_Packages_A_Special_Stimulus_for_Moslem_Smokers_to_Quit_Smoking>.
• Nawi Ng, L.W., A. Öhman 2006, ‘‘If I don’t smoke, I’m not a real man’—Indonesian teenage boys’ views about smoking ‘, Health Education Research, vol. 22, no. 6, viewed 19 December 2019, <https://academic.oup.com/her/article/22/6/794/640787>.
• Stories 2015, How Indonesia’s Kids Are Getting Hooked On Cigarettes, Video Recording, Youtube, viewed 19 December 2019, <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fM9t3hub6yg&has_verified=1>.
• Mimi Nichter, S.P., M Danardono, N Ng, Y Prabandari, Mark Nichter 2008, Reading culture from tobacco advertisements in Indonesia, viewed 19 December 2019, <https://tobaccocontrol.bmj.com/content/tobaccocontrol/18/2/98.full.pdf>.
• Southeast Asia Tobacco Control Alliance 2010, International artists performing at Indonesian tobacco-sponsored rock festival despite protests, viewed 19 December 2019, <https://seatca.org/international-artists-performing-at-indonesian-tobacco-sponsored-rock-festival-despite-protests/>.
• Truth 2019, QUITTING VAPING ISN’T EASY. BUT YOU’RE NOT IN IT ALONE. , viewed 19 December 2019, <https://www.thetruth.com/articles/hot-topic/GameAwards/quit-vaping>.
• Bendaas, Y. 2019, Text-in quit line for vaping subscribes more than 100 young people daily, North Carolina Center for Public Policy Research, viewed 19 December 2019, <https://nccppr.org/text-in-quit-line-for-vaping-subscribes-more-than-100-young-people-daily/>.
• Designer, B. 2011, Alternative Design Rockin’land 2011, viewed 19 December 2019, <http://giecross.blogspot.com/2011/04/>.
• Julier, G. 2013, ‘From Design Culture to Design Activism’, Design and Culture, vol. 5, no. 2, pp. 215-36.

The Indonesian Tobacco market is one of the largest and fastest growing markets in the world and is very quickly becoming a national health crisis. Bringing in an approximate $15.8 billion AUS to the country’s economy in 2018, the tobacco industry equates to 10 percent of the total Indonesian economic market. The revenue associated with the tobacco industry in Indonesia however diminishes in comparison to the enormous health costs associated. According to the Indonesian ministry of health, $62.2 billion AUS was spent fighting the health crisis in 2015, four times the amount of revenue generated from tobacco sales. So, if the Indonesian economy is losing copious amounts of money to the health risks associated with tobacco, why haven’t they implemented stronger laws imposing the use of the drug? 

According to the World Health Organisations (WHO) report on the global tobacco epidemic in 2019, 62.9 percent of Indonesian men above the age of 15 are daily smokers. However, the statistics drop considerably with women, having only 4.8 percent smoke daily, equating to a national percentage of 33.8. The tobacco industry is also Indonesia’s second largest employer of citizens, behind the government, and frequently exploits cheap child labour under minimal health standards to grow and harvest the product. Many Indonesian families face strict financial situations earning an average yearly income of $5000 AUS, so any possible employment for a family to survive is a must. Most of these families work on Kretek tobacco fields, which is a blend of tobacco, cloves and other flavours to produce a ‘tastier’ experience for the smoker. In 2009, the US banned the importation and distribution of Kretek within the country in hopes that it would discourage youth from smoking. To put this into context, it is important to recognise how tobacco companies market a product under extremely loose Indonesian laws to popularise a ‘tastier’ tobacco experience, therefore increasing the use of the drug and the health risks associated. Indonesian’s under the age of 20 equate to 45 percent of the national population, so tobacco companies are eager to advertise, and often exploit their young impressionable minds into a culture that’s tobacco intake continues to climb. 

Due to the tobacco industries considerable financial contribution to the Indonesian economy, few restrictions are in place for tobacco marketing and advertising. Newspapers, magazines, billboards and television advertisements of tobacco bombard Indonesian society, often influencing potential ‘new-comers’ that smoking can help you control your emotions, enhance your masculinity and uphold traditional Indonesian values while simultaneously promoting modernity and globalisation. Although the legal age for the distribution of tobacco is 18, tobacco venders often capitalise on younger individuals, illegally selling single cigarettes to minors for only a few cents.  

References:

• Reynolds, C. 1999, ‘Tobacco advertising in Indonesia: “the defining characteristics for success”’, viewed 26 November, <https://tobaccocontrol.bmj.com/content/8/1/85>.
• Mimi Nichter, S.P., M Danardono, N Ng, Y Prabandari, Mark Nichter 2009, ‘Reading culture from tobacco advertisements in Indonesia’, viewed 26 November, <https://tobaccocontrol.bmj.com/content/18/2/98.info>.
• Richard D. Hurt, J.O.E., Anhari Achadi, Ivana T. Croghan 2012, ‘Roadmap to a tobacco epidemic: transnational tobacco companies invade Indonesia’, viewed 26 November, <https://tobaccocontrol.bmj.com/content/21/3/306.info>.
• Hannah Ritchie, M.R. 2019, Smoking, Our World In Data, viewed 26 November 2019,<https://ourworldindata.org/smoking>.
• Organization, W.H. 2019, WHO report on the global tobacco epidemic, 2019, country profile, Indonesia, WHO, United Nations, viewed 26 November 2019, <https://www.who.int/tobacco/surveillance/policy/country_profile/idn.pdf>.
• Wibawa, T. 2019, Tackling Indonesia’s smoking addiction a ‘double-edged sword’, ABC, viewed 26 November 2019, <https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-09-01/tackling-indonesias-smoking-addiction-harder-than-it-seems/11430638>.
• Organization, W.H. 2018, Factsheet 2018, Indonesia, WHO, United Nations, viewed 26 November 2019, <https://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/handle/10665/272673/wntd_2018_indonesia_fs.pdf?sequence=1>.
• Correspondent, A.F. 2019, Indonesian child smoking, ABC, viewed 26 November 2019, <https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-09-01/indonesian-child-smoking-2/11455766>.