American Idol’s Kelly Clarkson urged to drop cigarette sponsors

[HMG] – In one of the longest careers of any American Idol winner, Kelly Clarkson has inspired both delight and dispute, and her upcoming concert in Indonesia is causing some more.

Kelly, 27, won ‘Idol’ in 2002 with a voice that even Jeff Beck said ‘demands attention.’ But her next concert in Indonesia’s capital, Jakarta is sponsored by ‘LA Lights,’ a local cigarette maker, and that’s got some people upset.

A group calling itself ‘The Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids,’ is complaining that all the TV ads, brochures and promotional billboards for Kelly’s April 29 concert have the cigarette maker’s logo splashed across them, and that’s the wrong message.

“If Kelly Clarkson goes ahead with the concert, she is being a spokesman for the tobacco industry and helping them to market to children,” says Matt Myers, president of the campaign.

One solution could be to copy Alicia Keys – At her request, cigarette giant ‘Philip Morris’ removed all their slogans and logos from promotional materials for her July 2008 show in the same town.

Matt and his friends campaigned against that show as well, and E says he’s not budging on this one; “Kelly has the power to send a clear message to Indonesian young people, and young people of the world,”  he says.

The World Health Organization says around 210,000 Indonesians die from smoking-related diseases every year, and 80% start smoking before they’re 19. But the tobacco firm who placed all the ads, ‘Djarum’ are unmoved, and say they’re in full compliance with local regulations on advertising tobacco.

So far, neither reps for the Texas-born star, nor the folks at her label have made any comment about all this free press, and the concert is due to open as planned.

We’ll let you know if she changes her mind…

Update: Kelly responded to the controversy on her blog:

“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.

“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.”