It seems like the drama surrounding the ad for online shopping site Shopee featuring famed K-pop girl group BLACKPINK, which was ordered off the air by the Indonesian Broadcasting Commission (KPI) yesterday, is not over yet.
Today, Shopee released a statement in response to KPI’s decision and, lo and behold, it turns out that Indonesia’s Film Censorship Institution (LSF) had already reviewed the commercial before it ever aired and met their already strict standards for what is acceptable to show on television.
“Our advertisement had already received permission from LSF,” Shopee’s Country Brand Manager Rezki Yanuar wrote in the company’s statement.
He further explained that Shopee, as a company, has always tried to follow all broadcasting regulations in Indonesia.
LSF Head Ahmad Yani Basuki confirmed Shopee’s statement and said that ad did not violate any norms of decency norms, as KPI stated in their own release yesterday.
KPI wrote that both the ad and televised concert featuring BLACKPINK that took place on November 19 had violated their broadcasting standards concerning morality and decency for depicting “several women singing and dancing in revealing clothing”.
“LSF censors films and ads according to the existing regulations on Film Censorship. We had decided the [Shopee] ad was rated for ages 13 and above, we considered the matter done,” Ahmad said today as quoted by Kumparan.
However, Ahmad said that LSF could not interfere with KPI’s order that TV stations stop broadcasting the ad. He also said they are not responsible for broadcasting times on television, saying that’s under KPI’s jurisdication.
Yesterday, KPI issued a press release in which the regulatory body instructed 11 television stations to stop broadcasting the ad and warning some of those channels against reairing a televised concert featuring BLACKPINK that took place on November 19.
Signed by Yuliandre Darwis, the head of Central KPI, the warning was sent to Trans TV, RCTI, RTV, MNC TV, Indosiar, TV One, ANTV, Trans7, GTV, Net, and SCTV — the latter four of which broadcasted the concert as well.
In the release, KPI says it hopes that television stations will comply with the request and that the commission will punish those who continue airing the ad “in accordance with existing regulations.”
Prior to the warning, a petition was launched last Friday by a journalism lecturer named Maimon Herawati demanding that KPI stop broadcasting the “vulgar” ad. KPI did not say if the Maimon’s initiative had a direct effect on their directive to stop airing the ad, but given the tens of thousands of people who signed the Change.org petition before they made their decision, as well as the widespread media coverage it received, it seems like that must have been the case.
Shopee left their own response on the petition’s page, saying it was planning to air a different ad starting yesterday.
The petition is still going strong today, having received more than 115,000 signatures as of the time of writing.
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