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.