Kelly Clarkson is responding to the public outcry over her upcoming Indonesia concert sponsored by Asian cigarette brand L.A. Lights. Kelly will be performing the world’s fourth most populous nation on April 29, and some anti-smoking proponents believe the former American Idol’s affiliate with the tobacco firm is encouraging a hazardous system that allows tobacco companies virtual free rein to peddle their products to Indonesians, via movies to sports sponsorships. and television shows.
Clarkson’s controversy comes two years after Alicia Keys objected to a similar tobacco-fuelled sponsorship deal in Indonesia. A. Keys demanded that the cigarette logos be removed from all ads promoting her Jakarta concert, and US-based anti-smoking groups want Kelly to do the same.
In a message to fans posted on her blog Wednesday, Kelly voiced her displeasure with the cigarette company’s sponsorship of her show, but added that she was unknown of the arrangement. Kelly says the situation is now out or her hands.
“So ….my morning began with finding out that I am all over billboards, tv ads, and other media formats along side a tobacco company who unbeknownst to me is sponsoring my Jakarta date on my current tour. I was not made aware of this and am in no way an advocate or an ambassador for youth smoking. I’m not even a smoker, nor have I ever been. Unfortunately, my only option at this point was to cancel the show in order to stop the sponsorship,” she wrote.
“However, I can’t justify penalizing my fans for someone else’s oversight. This is a lose-lose situation for me and I am not happy about it but the damage has been done and I refuse to cancel on my fans. I think the hardest part of situations like this is getting personally attacked for something I was completely unaware of and being used as some kind of political pawn.”
Indonesisa remains one of the last holdouts that has not signed the World Health Organization’s tobacco treaty.