Warning: This Concert Is Hazardous to Your Health
March 22, 2013
When young fans attended the Java Jazz music festival in Jakarta, Indonesia, earlier this month, they had to walk through concert grounds plastered with advertising for Djarum Super Mild, the cigarette brand that sponsored the concert.
When performers such as Joss Stone took the stage, they performed under a cigarette logo.
And for weeks before the concert, Djarum promoted its deadly products using the images of music stars, in the process telling kids that smoking is fun and glamorous.
These activities beg the question: Was Java Jazz promoting music or cigarettes?
Tobacco-sponsored concerts are prohibited in the United States and many other countries for a very good reason — they help market cigarettes to impressionable kids. Unfortunately, they are still allowed in Indonesia, which has some of the world’s weakest laws to reduce tobacco use. Indonesia needs to strengthen its laws. In the meantime, our Tune Out Tobacco campaign is urging musicians to stop performing in tobacco-sponsored concerts so they’re not help market cigarettes to kids.