Ministry Of Health Highlights Massive Cigarette Advertisements On Social Media And The Internet

JAKARTA - The Ministry of Health has highlighted cigarette advertisements that are massively displayed by producers to the Indonesian people. “The condition is getting worse. This time especially with the emergence of new products and the inducement of cigarettes everywhere. The last thing we got was that the advertisements had penetrated," said the Head of Advocacy and Partnerships at the Directorate of Health Promotion and Community Empowerment of the Indonesian Ministry of Health (Kemenkes) Sakri Sabatmaja in the webinar Supporting the Increase in Excise and Cigarette Prices which was attended in Jakarta, reported by Antara. , Wednesday, October 6th.

Sakri explained that the situation was concerning, because the advertisements competed with each other to offer the lowest price to the public so that the cigarette products could be consumed in large quantities by the public.

The advertisements, he said, were also massively displayed more through social media and the internet, making it easier for consumers, especially children and teenagers in Indonesia, to buy cigarette products through online shopping applications.

"As many as 90 percent of cigarette fans can buy online, especially young people whose hobby is online shopping and when it comes to production, it turns out that until 2018 yesterday there was no decrease, only an increase (of users)," he said.

Furthermore, with a heavy day, he said, the party who most visited shops that sold e-cigarettes (vape) was currently very much dominated by people who were teenagers, thus increasing the number of people consuming cigarettes.

The situation is getting worse, he said, because there is no clear regulation to regulate the display of these advertisements either on the roadside boards or on the internet.

Seeing the phenomenon in cigarette advertisements, he invites all local governments to be able to firmly improve the application of regulations related to non-smoking areas in order to reduce public consumption both in buying and using cigarettes.

In addition, he hopes that local governments can aggressively provide education about the dangers of smoking and be able to utilize funding from cigarette taxes to be used in social health activities in their respective regions.

“In principle, we always encourage healthy-minded regulations. So any activity made by the local government or any OPD that is important is the output of social health activities. Whether it uses cigarette tax funds, go ahead, the important thing is the impact is on the health sector," he said.