AMERICAN IDOL WINNER & SMOKING SPONSORSHIP

KELLY CLARKSON APPEARS IN BILLBOARD ADS
FOR CIGARETTE COMPANY SPONSORING CONCERT

BOGOR, Indonesia - Just a few miles after passing a towering "Marlboro Man" ad, a second billboard off the highway promotes cigarettes with a new American face: Kelly Clarkson. The former American Idol winner invites fans to buy tickets to her upcoming concert in Jakarta, the nation's capital. The logo of her sponsor is splashed in huge type above her head - the popular Indonesian cigarette brand “L.A. Lights”. Similar ads also run on TV. Such in-your-face tobacco advertising has been banned for years in the U.S. and many other countries. But in Indonesia, the world's fourth most populous nation, tobacco companies have virtual free rein to peddle their products, from movies to sports sponsorships and television shows. The country remains one of the last holdouts that has not signed the World Health Organization's tobacco treaty. As smoking has declined in many Western countries, it has risen in Indonesia, about 63 percent of all men light up. Smoking-related illnesses kill at least 200,000 annually in a nation of 235 million.

Anti-smoking advocates now hope Clarkson will drop the sponsorship of Indonesia's third-largest tobacco company, “Djarum”. A growing number of voices have started pleading with the Grammy-winning pop star on her Facebook page. Two years ago, a tobacco affiliate of U.S.-based Philip Morris International, which dominates Indonesia's tobacco market, removed its logo from ads promoting an Alicia Keys concert in Jakarta after the singer publicly denounced the sponsorship and apologized to her fans. “If Kelly Clarkson goes ahead with the concert, she is by choice being a spokesman for the tobacco industry and helping them to market to children,” said president of the “Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids”, which has urged Clarkson to drop the sponsorship.


Young people, identified themselves with a pop or rock star, spend much of their valuable time praising them. However, their "idols" often care more about money than the message they convey to youth. We should be attracted to the humble sadhus, because they will help us to grow spiritually.

WHAT DO THE VEDIC TEACHINGS TELL US?

When humility like the blade of grass and tolerance like the tree appear in the devotee, such a devotee has passed beyond offensive chanting, attaining nistha-kirtaniya sada harih. Who will not be attracted to such a devotee, Krsna included? He will pay attention to them through the medium of his advanced devotees, telling them that “in such and such devotee you have a receptive ear to pour the nectar of my pastimes into.” This nectar will enter the heart, and ruci-bhakti will manifest. The fortunate devotee who develops this taste will have no taste for the things of this world; money, sex, followers, or even knowledge. Neither will samsara be a problem for this blessed soul.

Śrīla Bhakti Vedanta Tripurari Mahārāja :
“The Spiritual Cloud of Unknowing”
Śrī Caitanya Sanga - Vol. II, No. 7 - 2000.
http://www.swami.org/pages/sanga/