Billboard Blitz: Yogyakarta, Central Java

By Barrie | August 6th, 2007 | No Comments

Activists have underlined the importance of a stricter government regulation on outdoor advertising media in a bid to help restore the heritage city of Yogyakarta. At a one-day workshop on outdoor media held here over the weekend, participants said the amount of uncontrolled outdoor advertising media in the city had reached a very concerning level.

“Yogyakarta is priceless. So, let’s not cheapen it” heritage activist Laretna T. Adishakti from the Jogja Heritage Society said in the workshop, which was jointly organized by the Yogyakarta Provincial Cultural Council and Sarjana Wiyata Taman Siswa University.

Laretna said the Yogyakarta city administration reportedly received Rp 3 billion (US$333,000) annually from the outdoor advertising sector, which she said had jeopardized the heritage status of the time-honored city.

She said Yogyakarta should be listed as a world heritage site.

In 1994, Yogyakarta became a member of the Kyoto-based league of world heritage cities, joining other famous heritage cities such as Greece, Kyoto, Prague and Nara.

In 2003, the Tamansari Water Castle, in the Yogyakarta Palace compound, was listed by the World Monuments Fund as one of the 100 most endangered heritage sites in the world. This year, following the devastating 2006 earthquake, Kotagede was added to the same list.

Yogyakarta’s leather puppets and the keris (a traditional asymmetrical dagger) have been recognized by UNESCO as cultural heritage works of art.

Laretna expressed concern that Yogyakarta, over the last few years, seems to have mismanaged its priceless status. Instead of showcasing the beauty and wonder of the city to the rest of the world, the city was unattractively covered with outdoor advertising media in various sizes and forms.

“This really concerns me. Is this the way a world heritage city is managed? I don’t think so,” she said, showing participants photos of the large banners, posters, billboards and other outdoor media material that can be found covering many of the city’s heritage buildings — ruining the whole ambience.

“I think it’s time the local government implemented a stricter regulation regarding which parts of the city can be used to display advertising media and which parts can not. Otherwise, we are really killing ourselves.”

She said Rp 3 billion in revenue was minuscule compared to what the city might benefit if it was properly managed and its heritage sites and buildings were protected, thus attracting more tourists.

Another speaker in the workshop, Anggi Minarni from the caring community for public spaces in Yogyakarta, agreed, suggesting other ways to display outdoor media without damaging the beauty of the city.

City buses, taxis and other functional objects such as mailboxes, garden benches, garbage bins, empty walls, or even public facilities including fire hydrants, sidewalks, city gardens and trees, she said, could be used as creative mediums for elegant outdoor advertising.

She suggested advertising companies could take care of trees in a particular area and use the trees as an artistic (and green) advertising medium.

M. Arief Budiman of the Yogyakarta branch of the Association of Indonesian Advertising Companies shared Anggi’s views, also saying the natural environment could be used as an advertising medium.

In the advertising industry, he said, ‘ambient media’ means using the natural environment as a unique and possible medium to make the passing audience smile or laugh — meaning they would remember the message contained in the advertisement.

“The strength lies in how the message is integrated with the environment,” he said.

“I believe together we can make Yogyakarta a pioneer environmentally-friendly outdoor media city,” said Arief, adding that outdoor media across the country was only a short-term cash cow for both local governments and advertising companies.

Sri Wahyuni