Edinburgh Napier University

  In May 2010 the world discovered the “smoking baby”, a two year old Indonesian boy who smoked forty cigarettes a day. He became the youngest person in the world to receive tobacco addiction treatment. For a number of years, tobacco companies have had significant political and financial influence in Indonesia. The tobacco industry is one of the Indonesian government's largest sources of tax revenue. In some regions, such as East Java, it is also the largest source of employment (Nichter et al., 2009). Because of its economic contribution, there are few restrictions on tobacco marketing and advertising. Tobacco advertising in Indonesia is believed to be the most aggressive and innovative in the world, and it saturates the country‟s landscape. This paper will provide an overview of tobacco marketing in Indonesia. It will then evaluate the practice in relation to conventional marketing ethics frameworks: utilitarianism, deontology, and virtue ethics.