QUOTE
80 million a day
They’re starting young and dying young. 400 thousand Indonesians are dying each year from smoking related illnesses and business couldn’t be better for tobacco companies in retreat from punitive taxes and tough health regulations in the developed world.
'From the tobacco company’s perspective, Indonesia is a paradise.'
David Stanford
Indonesia Consumers Foundation
Any hour of the day Indonesians are subjected to a sales pitch that hasn’t been seen in Australia for decades. Cigarette commercials on television hard sell messages that smoking is cool while sporting events and pop concerts are draped with advertising slogans and seductive images. Even the Marlboro man who rode into the sunset in the west years ago is riding high in the saddle on enormous roadside billboards.
Critics are scathing in their assessment of cigarette vendors like Philip Morris and others and accuse them of seizing on the absence of regulation and of directly exposing kids to a variety of advertising.
‘The fact that today Philip Morris is continuing to target youth in Indonesia is one of the most egregious moral and social violations of corporate responsibility that I can imagine.’
Matthew Myers President - Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids
Indonesia itself is accused by anti-smoking campaigners of being a rogue state in the company of North Korea and Zimbabwe for thumbing its nose at the facts and ignoring the World Health Organisation’s widely accepted convention on tobacco control. The country’s top council of Islamic scholars recently considered declaring a fatwa on smoking - but even they balked and failed to stop the surge of the tobacco companies.
‘Cigarettes are like a weapon of mass destruction and cigarette advertising is an invasion to the young of Indonesia.’
Cholil Ridwan Religious leader
Indonesia correspondent Geoff Thompson visits the cancer wards and tobacco fields of Indonesia for this disturbing investigation of smoking’s booming marketplace. Along the way he confronts the new boss of Philip Morris in Indonesia who declares he has no qualms about their marketing practices.
‘On a personal level my conscience is fine.’
John Gledhill CEO Philip Morris, Indonesia
They’re starting young and dying young. 400 thousand Indonesians are dying each year from smoking related illnesses and business couldn’t be better for tobacco companies in retreat from punitive taxes and tough health regulations in the developed world.
'From the tobacco company’s perspective, Indonesia is a paradise.'
David Stanford
Indonesia Consumers Foundation
Any hour of the day Indonesians are subjected to a sales pitch that hasn’t been seen in Australia for decades. Cigarette commercials on television hard sell messages that smoking is cool while sporting events and pop concerts are draped with advertising slogans and seductive images. Even the Marlboro man who rode into the sunset in the west years ago is riding high in the saddle on enormous roadside billboards.
Critics are scathing in their assessment of cigarette vendors like Philip Morris and others and accuse them of seizing on the absence of regulation and of directly exposing kids to a variety of advertising.
‘The fact that today Philip Morris is continuing to target youth in Indonesia is one of the most egregious moral and social violations of corporate responsibility that I can imagine.’
Matthew Myers President - Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids
Indonesia itself is accused by anti-smoking campaigners of being a rogue state in the company of North Korea and Zimbabwe for thumbing its nose at the facts and ignoring the World Health Organisation’s widely accepted convention on tobacco control. The country’s top council of Islamic scholars recently considered declaring a fatwa on smoking - but even they balked and failed to stop the surge of the tobacco companies.
‘Cigarettes are like a weapon of mass destruction and cigarette advertising is an invasion to the young of Indonesia.’
Cholil Ridwan Religious leader
Indonesia correspondent Geoff Thompson visits the cancer wards and tobacco fields of Indonesia for this disturbing investigation of smoking’s booming marketplace. Along the way he confronts the new boss of Philip Morris in Indonesia who declares he has no qualms about their marketing practices.
‘On a personal level my conscience is fine.’
John Gledhill CEO Philip Morris, Indonesia
A recently made piece of journalism, If you guys would like to download the short documentary or would like to just read the transcript
http://www.abc.net.au/foreign/content/2009/s2673564.htm
It's funny how some people still deny that smoking kills you and makes you look more "masculine".
Actually there is a smaller smoking room, but the smokers said they are can not concentrate on writing without smoking.