Show reveals added value of promotional postcards
By K. Basrie
JAKARTA (JP): For Risa Permanadeli, Paris is a paradise, a great place to see, study and live.
No doubt about it: Risa, in a word, thinks Paris is perfect.
Which is why she was particularly upset when she was accosted by members of kapak merah, a notorious gang of ax-wielding Jakarta street criminals, who tried to steal her mobile phone recently while she was passing through Palmerah district. She hastily sped away in her car.
Risa quickly reported the incident to the local police but, as usual, got no immediate response.
"You'd never have such an irritating experience in Paris," she said a day later.
For Risa, the French capital is also a city where there is a high sense of culture.
"Paris is a city of similar size to Kebayoran Baru (in South Jakarta) but it has 400 cinemas, each offering different types of films, including silent movies."
"There, Hollywood films are only for low-class people," she added.
She has now brought her favorite city to Jakarta with a collection of promotional postcards she picked up at various places, mostly cafes and movie theaters, during her stay in Paris.
"These are 143 postcards from some 700 in my collection that I got (for free) at several popular meeting places. Like the locals there, I used to go out at night to the places to relax and find out more about," Risa recalled.
Her month-long exhibition is open until May 31 at her office- cum-gallery on Jl. Suryo 8, Kebayoran Baru, South Jakarta.
For many locals, such an exhibition might be something new as the majority of similar art-related events usually only display paintings, photos and ceramics.
Risa has her own reasons for choosing to exhibit the postcards.
"I just want to tell the public that commercial promotion or public campaigns in Paris do not need large-sized media, as is usual here," she said.
"By offering such a postcard-size medium, the public -- particularly intellectuals -- become free to pick up the advertisement they want to see."
For Parisians, Risa continued, considering the merits of an advertisement is a private matter.
"That's why many advertisers and organizers of events advertise their activities through such a small medium, postcards, which have been proven to work effectively," said Risa, a graduate of the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales.
Mira Nair's movie Salaam Bombay, for instance, was promoted in France through a postcard instead of a splashy billboard.
With artistically colored wooden frames, which she designed herself and asked a Lebak Bulus carpenter to make, all the colorful, state-of-the-art postcards on display give information about events, such as plays, films, music, festivals, operas and dance, exhibitions to be held at galleries and the Louvre, and new products to be launched. They are from between 1997 and 1999.
Several others give information about public services and facilities, such as European intercity express trains and the safe sex campaign for the use of condoms.
That's not all. Japanese auto manufacturer Toyota promotes itself by adopting typical French taste: a car showroom with a street-cafe look and a sandy beach, a towel, with a beach umbrella and ball in front.
The advertising blurb is "the world is a beach".
Eurostar has a series of funny, engaging ideas, including one postcard showing the arrest of a streaker.
After having a brief look through Risa's postcards, the fortunate would immediately be able to recall a recent visit to Paris. They would be particularly memorable if the visitor to the exhibition was in France during the period when the events advertised on the postcards took place.
But is Risa just doing a little nonofficial promotion for the land of the Eiffel Tower and good wine?
"Actually not," she argued. "It's really to reveal how lonely the people of Paris are!"
Risa's postcard exhibition, which is sponsored by The Jakarta Post in conjunction with its 18th anniversary, is worth visiting even though the venue is hard to find and the parking space limited.
It will be particularly worthwhile for graphic designers, advertisers and businesspeople alike to discover an effective alternative medium for them to expose their products and events.
A number of local companies have already tried to promote their products and activities through attractive postcards placed for free at different locales, like those available at Manggala Wanabhakti fitness center in Central Jakarta.
However, only a few days after being put on display, many of the postcards were to be found scattered in the nearby parking lot.