Ads agencies lack moral principles: House
Ads agencies lack moral principles: House
JAKARTA (JP): Members of the House of Representatives have charged advertising executives in Indonesia as lacking in moral principles.
Sophan Sophiaan, who led the charge during a hearing yesterday with the Indonesian Association of Advertising Agencies, picked the Wrangler jeans television commercial to underline his point that advertising agencies are violating society's moral codes.
Sophan said the ad, in which a young woman takes off her jeans to extinguish a fire, "does not fit with the Indonesian culture".
The House Commission I for information and culture held a hearing with the top advertising executives, an event long awaited by the public because of the mounting complaints about some of the advertisements that have been appearing on television and in newspapers.
Sophan, a film producer, took particular offense to the Soundmax commercial, which suggests that the Soundmax television set has the quality of rock music, but affordable price of kroncong (traditional Indonesian music).
Sophan said the advertisement implies that kroncong is cheap.
Marwah Daud Ibrahim, a mass communication expert, said the impact of television commercials on viewers is greater than television programs because they are repeated over and over.
"Children will likely keep ad jingles and pictures in their memory," she said. "The cultural challenge of advertisements is even greater than other television programs, because it controls the human mind-set, so that the social accountability of advertisement producers is very big."
Marwah said advertisements should not be allowed to appear too frequently.
"In some countries, a television advertisement cannot appear more than once in 30 minutes. Here, the same advertisement can appear five to six times in that period," she said.
Koes Pudjianto, chairman of the advertising association, found the House's accusations somewhat unfair. "We tend to look only at the negative aspects of advertisement. Actually the positive ones abound," he said.
Fachry Mohammad, another association executive, supported Koes' assertion, citing the various public service advertisements put out in the media, such as the government's salt ionization campaign, polio immunization program, public health, safe sex, family planning, anti-AIDS drive and traffic discipline.
Koes proposed that the number of these kind of advertisements be increased.
He suggested a regulation which would compel all advertisement agencies to join the association to ensure better supervision.
In addition, any new advertising agencies must obtain the recommendation of the association before obtaining the government's operating license, he added. (16)