New Campaign Urges Musicians to “Tune Out Tobacco” by Rejecting Tobacco Sponsorships
January 04, 2013
The Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids is launching a new campaign and web site – called Tune Out Tobacco – urging musicians to reject tobacco industry sponsorships of their concerts.
Tobacco sponsorships of concerts and other events are prohibited in the United States and many other countries. But some countries, including Indonesia, still allow such sponsorships, and many popular international musicians continue to perform at these concerts, which help tobacco companies market their deadly and addictive products to kids.
In the latest example, the popular U.S. band Weezer is scheduled to perform at a tobacco industry-sponsored concert In Jakarta, Indonesia, on January 8. PT Djarum, an Indonesian tobacco giant, has promoted the event using Weezer posters and promotional materials plastered with branding for the company’s popular LA Lights cigarette.
Public health groups are demanding that Weezer reject the tobacco sponsorship and pledge never again to appear at a tobacco-sponsored event. You can send a message to Weezer at Tune Out Tobacco.
The Weezer concert comes just several months after other popular international artists – including Robin Thicke and the Scissor Sisters – performed at Indonesia’s Java SoulNation Festival, also sponsored by the LA Lights brand.
Tobacco-sponsored concerts are especially common in Indonesia, which has almost no restrictions on tobacco advertising and sponsorships. Indonesia must take strong action to reduce tobacco use and protect kids from tobacco marketing. In the meantime, artists like Weezer shouldn’t be helping tobacco companies exploit the country’s weak laws to market to kids.
Public health groups are calling for musicians to stop performing at these events once and for all. Tune Out Tobacco includes a Hall of Shame listing artists who have performed, or are scheduled to perform, at tobacco-sponsored events. It also highlights artists – including Kelly Clarkson, Alicia Keys and Maroon 5 – who stood up to big tobacco and refused to use their concerts as a marketing tool for the tobacco industry.