Today's Evil Beet Gossip

Kelly Clarkson is Getting Paid by a Cigarette Company

Image via AP

Kelly Clarkson is catching some flack for partnering with the sponsor of her Jakarta, Indonesia show. The original American Idol is getting her paper from an Indonesian cigarette company called L.A. Lights, and while the style of advertising above is illegal here in the States, it’s considered fair game there. In fact, banning advertising like this has been one way that Americans have been able to cut back on smoking. Currently, the smoking rate in Indonesia is at an all-time high.

Once anti-smoking groups caught wind of Kelly’s involvement with the cigarette company, they lashed out. The president from the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids released the following statement, urging Kelly to cut ties with the brand:

“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. She has the power now to turn this situation around and to send a clear message to Indonesian young people and, frankly, to the young people of the world.”

Well, you know this pack-a-day smoker thinks this is a bunch of bullshit. Sure, cigarette are terrible things that ruin lives, but are we supposed to hold Kelly Clarkson even remotely responsible for people’s addictions? What about when Britney Spears hawked Pepsi? Do you have any idea what drinking soda does to your body? What about Diddy and his Ciroc vodka? It’s not the same thing, but it kind of is. Let the woman get paid for her concert.

12 CommentsLeave a comment

  • Seems like a win, win to me. Some immigrant farm hands are making righteous coin picking tobacco, we give some Indonesians lung cancer. What’s not to like.

  • agree agree, same as when a celebrity is endorising a burger joint, hello paris hilton. junk food kills more than cigarretes. those guys (the anti tabacoo guys) should stop pushing their own agenda by attacking celebrities just to get attention

  • I absolutely love LA Lights! They are made by Djarum who is the leading manufacturer of clove cigarettes. Here in the US you can buy regular and light cloves made by them. LA Lights are “lighter” by at least 50% of the light we can buy here in the states. I love the taste and while it is still smoking and horrible for you- I get it- I know very well how atrocious smoking is! However I like it and am going to conitue…. so if I am I want to do it with a brand I truly enjoy and has a slighly less horirific impact on my lungs. Anyhoodle if you enjoy cloves but want a lighter alternative I highly suggest looking these up online- I buy them directly from a company in Indonisia at about 24 dollars a carton (a quick search via google will direct you to a plothera of these retalors.

    Not a paid sponser just a very happy consumoer for 4+ years.

    I also second others comments about backing off Kelly- it’s a sponser of the concert and venue she is not endorsing them!

  • Smoking is pretty gross, though I know that it is still a big thing in a lot of other countries. And, well, Pepsi does not give off a terrible smell or negatively impact other people — cigarettes do.

  • News? I read this a few days ago on another rag…..What’s next Michael Jackson is dead?………….What, no way!

    How about posting something new once?