Public can take a stand against offensive ads

Public can take a stand against offensive ads

By Maria Endah Hulupi

JAKARTA (JP): In advertising, the impossible can come true. A
brawny young man can, for example, perform a series of superhuman
feats, including beating off a crocodile and saving a helpless
young woman, after guzzling a bottle of an energy drink.

And forget about concern over good taste when the ads focus on
women as the objects of attention.

In one of the most controversial TV ads of the past year, a
sports commentator is shown popping a men's supplement pill (it's
deliberately crude name is enough to say what it is all about),
winks at the camera and is pulled behind a door by a woman. A "Do
Not Disturb" sign on the door packs the final punch.

"I've seen ads in which women are pictured as objects," said
private company employee Lala. "In one ad, female models are used
only as proof of men's (sexual) potency. In another, the female
model has to wiggle her buttocks as a way to communicate the
painful sensation she feels ... It's tasteless. Such ads are
disgusting .... "

A street vendor selling energy drinks to public transportation
drivers in the Salemba Raya of Central Jakarta said he enjoyed
the heroic actions featured in the ads but he knew they were too
good to be true.

But some worry that the young and the impressionable of all
ages might not be able to distinguish between fact and fantasy,
particularly in depictions of women.

A gender researcher at Atma Jaya University's Community
Development Center, Yustina Rostiawati, said women were a highly
exploited commodity in the advertising world.

"We see a sexy woman in sedan ads, women in red-hot stretch
costumes dancing in chili sauce ads and many other ads and the
tabloids explore women's every curve."

Yustina said ads showed how the patriarchal ideology prevailed
in the country, and the fact that the ads escaped the attention
of the censorship board indicated the government's lack of gender
awareness.

She said fostering gender equality would take time and likely
receive strong resistance from various parties. "But efforts can
be started by freely voicing protests to all forms of gender-
biased messages. It's a form of social pressure," she said,
adding the methods could include writing to reader's sections of
newspapers.

A staff member in the public complaints division of the
Indonesian Consumer Protection Foundation (YLKI), Sularsih, said
she received complaints about several ads. Recent complaints have
included one from a nurses' association about the depiction of a
nurse in an ad for a chocolate cookie, "violence" in an ad for a
shampoo, the focus on women's breasts in a vehicle ad, misleading
information in a floor cleaner commercial and the "obscenity" of
the aforementioned ad for the men's supplement.

The cookie and floor cleaner ads were reedited, but the
vehicle and men's supplement commercials have been pulled from
the air after public complaints.

Sularsih urged all parties involved in the concept-making and
approval of ads -- the censorship agency, ad agencies, the media
and manufacturing companies -- to consider fully the content and
impact of the ads before they were aired.

"It's a precautionary step before the offended public takes
action on its own. Unlike before, members of society are more
critical and they can boycott products whose ads are misleading,
noneducative or violate social standards," she warned.

The foundation, she explained, has the capacity to urge the
authorities to impose sanctions, review trade licenses or to
withdraw certain products from the market for various reasons,
including misleading ads.

Sularsih added that the Association of Indonesian Advertising
Companies (P3I) was quite consistent in monitoring its members,
but violations by nonmember agencies were beyond its control.

The foundation's executive secretary, Huzna Zahir, urged
parties involved in monitoring ads, including the public, to
provide input on ads.

"An ad can be canceled or modified based on input from
society. But the fact that similar unethical ads can still secure
broadcast approval is also an indication of a poor system and
improper sanctions," she said.

She also said consumer protests could really make a
difference.

"Now consumers can sue a company based on false claims or
promises displayed in their ads or brochures, and consumers can
win the case," Huzna said.

Aside from the longtime problematic content of ads for
cigarettes and milk substitutes, she also underlined the need to
create guidelines for the promotion of children's snacks. She
also said ads for unhealthy foods should be banned from
children's comics.

"This is to protect children from direct exposure to ads that
can be misleading," Huzna said.