Advertising icon loses fight against cancer
Advertising icon loses fight against cancer
Indonesia advertising industry pioneer Ken Sudarto passed away at
65 on Saturday at 6 a.m. Singapore time (5 a.m. Jakarta time)
after being treated at the Mount Elizabeth Hospital for lymphatic
cancer.
His remains were taken to the Gatot Subroto Army Hospital
later in the day and would be buried at the Tanah Kusir public
cemetery in South Jakarta on Wednesday.
Born in Kebumen, Central Java, on March 16, 1942, as Kenneth
Tjahjady Sudarto, Ken created leading local advertising agency
Matari Inc., was a founding member of the Association of
Indonesian Advertising Agencies (PPPI), and the Indonesia chapter
of the International Advertising Association (IAA). He was also a
member of Indonesian Corruption Watch.
He had been ill from cancer since January last year.
"Ken was indeed a visionary. He had given us a lot of
surprising ideas that later became trends," Matari Inc. deputy
chairman Wisaksono Noeradi said.
In 1978, he recalled, Ken proposed the first public service
advertising in a bid to help promote environmental
sustainability.
"Ken has a lot of different areas of interests, such as sports
when he initiated private company participation in sponsoring
sports events and tourism by taking Indonesia for a trade and
tourism promotion to the United States, Europe and the Middle
East," Wisaksono said.
Ken and boy-scout buddy Paul Karmadi broke new ground in the
country's advertising industry in 1971 by setting up an
independent, privately owned advertising agency -- later known as
Matari.
He founded the company, currently in the top three by
billings, based on a simple principle that advertising only
involved people and communications. "We believe that no one can
understand and communicate with Indonesians, like other
Indonesians," he said, as quoted on Matari's website.
Among Matari's long-time clients are the nation's largest food
producer, Indofood, Astra Honda Motors, Bank Internasional
Indonesia and fast moving consumer goods producer Procter and
Gamble.
Ken graduated from the Indonesian University's School of
Economics in 1965. He was also an alumni of the INSEAD
Fountainebleau (France) Indonesian Senior Executive Program in
1982 and Owner-President Management Program (OPM) of Harvard
Business School in 1985.
His dedication in the industry had granted him a lifetime
achievement award Anugerah Darmanyata from the PPPI.
Friend and spiritualist Gede Prama cited Ken as a humble man.
"For a man as rich as he is, he dresses and drives modestly," he
said on his website.
Ken is survived by his wife, Sylvie, and three children,
Michael, Glenn and Cynthia.-- JP