Corporate Responsibility or "Hidden Campaigns"?

The General Chairman of Indonesia's National Commission for Child Protection, Seto Mulyadi, called tobacco companies' corporate social responsibility programs "hidden cigarette campaigns." Mulyadi said that cigarette companies "do free advertising through their CSR programs." Mulyadi is proposing a complete ban on cigarette advertising in Indonesia, after a study by the country's Public Health Department revealed that up to 81 percent of youth surveyed from 353 junior, senior and vocational schools admitted to having participated in activities sponsored by cigarette companies. As many as 51 percent of the respondents said they thought it was acceptable for a cigarette company to sponsor artistic performances and sporting events in schools; 93.3 percent could recite slogans used in cigarette commercials. Not only are youth familiar with the slogans, they use them in daily conversation, said the Secretary General of Indonesia's Child Protection Commission.