227 Lifestyle Ambiguity: The Visuals of Cigarette Advertisements in the Dutch East Indies Era Bedjo Riyanto, Nurhayatu Nufut Alimin, Endri Sintiana Murni Universitas Sebelas Maret, Indonesia Submitted: 2022-09-04. Revised: 2022-10-04. Accepted: 2022-11-28 Abstract The focuses of this research are the visual style reconstruction of cigarette advertisements pub- lished in magazines during the colonial era of the Dutch East Indies and the expressions of lifestyle recorded in them. This study examines the visualization and visual style of cigarette advertise- ments published in magazines in Indonesia from 1925 to 2000. This study also aims to reconstruct the lifestyle in the visual representation of cigarette advertisements as a reflection of the process of social change in Indonesian society during the colonial to the post-colonial period (1925 - 2000). This research employed descriptive analytical methodology, with the main theory of the social history of Art and David Chaney’s lifestyle theory. The visual style of Oriental Modern Eclecti- cism captures the Indies’ hybrid lifestyle expression, namely: a pseudo-modernity lifestyle as a result of the integration among the colonized communities which were spread across the Dutch East Indies (1925-1942). The cigarette advertisements of that era presented an imaginary world that depicted the harmonious social interactions of various social layers which is contrary to the social reality of the segregated colonial life. Keywords: cigarette advertisement, visual style, lifestyle How to Cite: Riyanto, B., Alimin, N. N., & Murni, E. S. (2022). Lifestyle Ambiguity: The Visuals of Cigarette Advertisements in the Dutch East Indies Era. Harmonia: Journal of Arts Research and Education, 22(2), 227-240 Harmonia: Journal of Arts Research and Education 22 (2) (2022), 227-240 Available online at http://journal.unnes.ac.id/nju/index.php/harmonia DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.15294/harmonia.v22i2.38636 of studies. (Al-Bashaireh et al., 2018). Moreover, since covid has become a global issue lately, it turns out that smo- kers also make things worse if they are infected with covid. The present analysis found that current smokers have an in- creased risk of presenting to the hospital with severe COVID‐19 and are approxima- tely twice as likely to experience severe or critical COVID‐19 as former or never‐smo- kers. In addition, patients with a smoking history were more likely to experience di- sease progression and require mechanical ventilation (Reddy et al., 2021). On the other hand, in terms of econo- mic aspects, the tobacco industry is a very INTRODUCTION Cigarettes are very popular and cont- roversial products. Some of the substances contained in cigarettes are the causes of deadly diseases. This review journal pro- vided clear evidence of the negative effects of smoking on the musculoskeletal system. Evidence found that smoking is associated with lower BMD, an increased risk for frac- ture, periodontitis, alveolar bone loss and implant failure, increased joint disease, poor functional outcomes, and poor thera- peutic response. Moreover, it is evidence of adverse effects on muscles, tendons, car- tilage, and ligaments, despite the scarcity Corresponding author: E-mail: bedjoriyanto@staff.uns.ac.id p-ISSN 2541-1683|e-ISSN 2541-2426 Harmonia: Journal of Arts Research and Education 22 (2) (2022): 227-240228 important manufacturing industry in In- donesia. The tobacco industry can provide a very significant income to the state and absorb labor and contribute to the prospe- rity of millions of its citizens. As evidence, the Ministry of Industry of the Republic of Indonesia mentioned that the tobacco in- dustry creates 5.98 million employments, of which 4.28 million are in manufacture and distribution, and 1.7 million people work in tobacco farming. In 2018, the ex- port rate of tobacco as cigarettes and ci- gars was 931.6 million USD, increasing by 2.98% compared to 2017 (Andarini, 2019). According to the history of Cigaret- tes and tobacco products, a manufacturing industry with a modern production pro- cess entered Indonesia (Dutch Indies at that time) in the late 19th century. Econo- mic liberalization, imposed by the Dutch East Indies Colonial Government in the 1870s after the Forced Cultivation, provi- ded an opportunity for foreign investors to invest in the Dutch East Indies. Foreign investors exploited this opportunity outsi- de the Dutch East Indies government, allo- wing the entry of an international cigaret- te industry network. The entry of foreign capital due to the political liberalization of the Dutch East Indies government allowed the entry of the international white cigaret- te industry. The development of cigarette types in the Dutch East Indies era produced a variety of products with distinct unique- ness that represented each of their pro- duction areas. One of them is Rokok Kre- tek (clove cigarettes), which has survived throughout the ages. Rokok Kretek is a type of cigarette which uses a clove and sauce mixture developed by Haji Djamha- ri at the end of the 19th century in Kudus city. Its existence marked a new era where the kretek industry was acknowledged as a local genius of the Indonesian culture’s original heritage. The new opportunity of clove cigarettes as the product preferred by millions of consumers with hundreds of thousands of labor absorption had invited Chinese merchants to invest in this field and enliven market competition with the indigenous kretek products. The economic potential of cigarettes was promising. Thus, investment in the tobacco industry in the Dutch East Indies grew rapidly, especially since the interna- tional cigarette company British-American Tobacco established its factory in Cirebon in 1925, followed by its new factory in Surabaya in 1928. Cigarettes produced by the western industry were usually made from Virginian tobacco which was called the white cigarette (white machine cigaret- te) (Castles, 1982). Since then, the cigarette industry in the Dutch East Indies entered a new phase as a modern industry. The industry is required to create a loyal con- sumer (customer) market, guarantee the availability of raw material supplies, mas- ter modern production technology, and create an integrated distribution network and marketing communication to win the market competition. The business development of the cigarette industry did not always run smoothly. Business rivalry, combined with non-conducive political conflicts, had led to anti-Chinese riots backed by the indige- nous cigarette business actors and mem- bers of Sarekat Islam (Islamic Union) in October 1918. In the following develop- ments, due to the decline of the indigeno- us kretek industry economy, especially in Kudus city, the Chinese ethnic kretek busi- ness actors managed to emerge as a major force that increasingly dominated the kre- tek industry in Indonesia. The urban lifestyle and the growing instant popular culture spurred clove ciga- rette products to emerge as a commodity of enjoyment, status symbols, and class identity enjoyed by all social strata. Each brand has its fanatical consumer layer ac- cording to its economic and social class. As non-functional impulsive convenience goods whose benefits to its customers are symbolic and intangible, market penetra- tion was performed by relying on persu- asive communication through advertising and promotional campaigns. Advertising myths that were considered the builders of the consciousness and lifestyle of modern Bedjo Riyanto et al., Lifestyle Ambiguity: The Visuals of Cigarette Advertisements 229 humans began to be utilized by the ciga- rette industries in the Dutch East Indies at the beginning of the 20th century. This was done to create the consumption desire that knew no boundaries. The establishment of the modern ad- vertising services industry, such as Aneta (Algemeen-Generaal-Nieuws-en Telegraaf Agentschap) by D.W. Berrety in 1905 furt- her strengthened the development of ad- vertising media as the front liners of the marketing force. Professional graphic de- signers of art academics graduates from the Netherlands, such as Frits Adolph van Bemmel, Cor van Deutekom, Is van Mens, and others, played an important role in the advancement of the advertising industry in the Dutch East Indies. From then on, advertisement as the means of persuasive communication that relied on visual aest- hetic charms effectively enabled the power of marketing appeal. Beautiful pictorial ad- vertisements (display ads) were supported by a combination of text/typography and illustrations to make the pages of news- papers and magazines published in those days to be more vibrant and pleasing to their readers. Imaginative spaces were for- med to build the image of cigarettes and their relation to modernity through adver- tisements (Riyanto, 2017). Cigarette advertisements appearing in the press were presented as reflections of the social order in the colonial era. In the advertisement of the Shag Van Nelle tobacco company, published in Kedjawen magazine in the 1930s, a transformation process and social changes in the life of the indigenous rural agrarian society toward modern urban society were portrayed in a realistic, detailed, and artistic illustration. The visuals of the cigarette advertise- ments in that era were presented as a har- monious narrative of the social solidarity bonds that existed between the colonizers and the colonized. The visual representa- tion of cigarette advertisements became a symbol of modernity as well as an ideal imaginary space for ethical, ideological propaganda over the claim of political success to civilize the Dutch East Indies. Through the visual representation of ciga- rette advertisements, it can be seen clearly that Orientalism’s ideology as a Western colonial ideology had established and rep- resented the image of Eastern nations as an exotic and romantic society, in contrast to the advanced, modern, and rational Wes- tern binary opposition. Figure 1 Shag Van Nelle Tobacco Advertise- ment on (Kedjawen Magazine, 1939) Advertisement seemed to have be- come a part of the means to construct the ideological romantic imagery of the beau- tiful Indies (Mooi Indies) with its escapist characteristic as the spirit (zeitgeist) of the orientalist period of the era. Through the imaginary space of cigarette advertise- ments, the Ethics showed their success in producing educated indigenous people oriented towards modern Western hu- mans and acting and thinking like their white skin masters (black skin white mask). This study is a chronological re- construction of the development of ciga- rette advertisements published in magazi- ne media, as an expression of middle-class society’s lifestyle, since the colonial period of the Dutch East Indies before the Japa- nese occupation (1925-1940). The selection of cigarette advertisements featured in the magazines is based on the consideration that magazines are popular cultural texts that are important to modern consumer society. Through media magazines, the mass culture industry constructs tastes, li- festyles, and consumer behavior in terms of fashion, culinary, entertainment, aesthe- tic choices, sexual orientation, body care, Harmonia: Journal of Arts Research and Education 22 (2) (2022): 227-240230 religious beliefs, and even the orientation of political ideology that the people belie- ve. Like Kaur Said, Magazines, like other media, greatly impact readers; his research about Beauty Product Advertisements in magazines stated that it manipulates wo- men into buying a way of life (Kaur et al., 2013). Advertising has great expansive po- wer, and without realizing it, advertising forms the consumer culture that is the cor- nerstone of marketing, goods and services. Finally, advertising becomes part of the strategy and cultural manipulation that underlies the survival of the system capita- list economy. In short, advertising is crea- ted to manipulate and create continuously and simultaneously needs new to consu- mers. Advertising is a lifestyle and beauty propaganda agent. As part of the lifesty- le, popular culture embodies the power of provocation and seduction in the mass me- dia, especially advertising as a representa- tion of the image (Aprillia, 2005). Cigarettes are closely related to mo- dern lifestyles, as written and recorded in history. Celebrities such as Humph- rey Bogart, Marilyn Monroe, and Audrey Hepburn helped to cement the association between cigarettes and style. “Cigarettes had once been the vice of immigrants and juvenile delinquents”, writes Sarah Milov, in her intriguing history of the American cigarette. “But war, advertising, and Hol- lywood had helped to broaden, professio- nalise, and glamorise smoking’s appeal” (Burki, 2020). Furthermore, the ad will affect the people who see it, especially adolescents. They are attracted by the ad and influen- ced to try to smoke. Research in Massa- chusetts by Siegel, conducted in early adolescence, suggests that the television component of an antismoking media cam- paign may have reduced the rate of prog- ression to becoming an established smo- ker among young adolescents (Siegel & Biener, 2000). Additionally, Biener rese- arch said that Adolescents who, at base- line, owned a tobacco promotional item and named a brand whose advertisements attracted their attention were more than twice as likely to become established smo- kers (odds ratio = 2.70) than adolescents who did neither (Biener & Siegel, 2000). At the same time, another research mentions that exposure to retail cigarette advertising is a risk factor for smoking initiation (Lisa Henriksen, Nina C. Schleicher, Ellen C. Feighery, 2010). On the other hand, magazine repro- ductions are of technically good printing quality. Thus, they may last longer accor- ding to their publishing cycle (weekly, monthly, quarterly, or yearly). The maga- zine layout is also more beautiful and char- ming, and it contains a variety of in-depth information that allows it to be a collectible and referential item for its readers (Lane, W. Ronald ; King, Karen Whitehill ; Rus- sell, 2009). Taking on lifestyle expression recor- ded in the visual style of cigarette adverti- sements published in magazines from 1925 to 1940 as its formal object, the purpose of this research is to analyze the form and visual style of cigarette advertisements published in magazine media during the Dutch East Indies era before the Japanese occupation (1925-1940). Furthermore, it also explains the style of design as a reflec- tion of Indonesian society’s lifestyle in the Dutch East Indies era before the Japanese occupation (1925-1940). METHOD The primary sources of this research are cigarette and tobacco product adver- tisements published in magazines from 1925-1940. All the visual samples were ob- tained from the collections of The National Library in Jakarta, the Mangkunegaran Pa- lace Library, as well as the National Press Monument in Surakarta. Source selection was conducted according to a purposive sampling or criterion-based selection stra- tegy that emphasized the creativity charac- teristics of the advertisement design style, message content, typography, creativity of advertising illustrations, and print quality rather than the level of its presence in the Bedjo Riyanto et al., Lifestyle Ambiguity: The Visuals of Cigarette Advertisements 231 population. Research periodization was selected during the Dutch East Indies era (1925- 1940). It was based on the fact that since 1925 which was an industrialization pro- cess of cigarette production, where the activity demanded a modern marketing communication system increased along with the intensity of advertising in the press media. To analyze the description of the vi- sual style development of cigarette adver- tisements and the lifestyle expressions pre- sented in the visual messages, the art and design criticism by Terry Barret as descri- bed in his book Criticizing Art was used in the following steps (Barrett, 1994). Description Stage: verbally descri- bing visual representations so that the spe- cial characteristics of an artwork or design can be seen, identified, and ultimately ap- preciated. This stage uses a Theory of Art Social History by Arnold Hauser and John Walker to describe the social history of In- donesian society. The main theory used in this rese- arch is the theory of Art Social History. The existence of an artwork or a design always describes the social position of the artist or designer as an individual in the network of the social structure in his supporting so- ciety in a certain historical space and time (Hauser, 1951). Further, Hauser also stated that in its historical development, artwork originally served as an instrument of reli- gious ritual in tribal or primitive societies. It then transformed into a propaganda medium for interest groups, clicks, politi- cal parties, and certain social classes. Ulti- mately, in modern society, artworks serve as a recreational means that promote the interests of certain social strata to pursue their practical interests either openly or co- vertly. Visual Culture Theory and The His- tory of Modern Graphic Design Styles. The relationship between lifestyle and visual style that becomes the identity or the spirit of an era of artwork and design is always closely related. Visual culture, a blend of lifestyle and style, is a culture built with visual elements as the main constructing forms. In the process of meaning construc- tion, visual culture involves the dominant activity of sight (vision) or gaze. Visual style always blends with lifes- tyle and the spirit of an era (zeitgeist), thus, it is called the style of the era (zeitstil). All visual styles of different periods can be present together so that no dominant style applies (Walker, 2010). An analytical descriptive research model with the main theory of art social history is applied to reconstruct the deve- lopment of the visual style of cigarette ad- vertisement depicting the lifestyle expres- sion published in magazine media during the Dutch East Indies era from 1925-1940 before the Japanese occupation. Interpretation stage; the act of identi- fying the secondary meaning by relating to the visual elements of an artwork or design described in detail in the previous stage, to the theme, concept, or event captured in the picture/image/form. Judgment/Evaluation stage; the act of understanding the essential and basic meaning or philosophical meaning of an artwork or design. RESULT AND DISCUSSION The Development of the Cigarette Indus- try in Indonesia In the Dutch East Indies era, the white cigarette symbolized the elite and upper-middle-class lifestyles, distinguis- hing them from the lower middle class or the people who mostly consumed clove cigarettes or homemade tingwe (manually rolled) cigarettes. Until 1925, white cigaret- tes primarily consumed by white commu- nities and indigenous elites were still im- ported from the West, with an average of 4 billion cigarettes each year. In the 1930s, there was a world economic crisis called the Malaise era. The Government of the Dutch East Indies experienced a decline in export revenue and taxes from foreign tra- de. Since 1932, all packs of cigarettes must be sealed with a “tag” paper to show the retail price. This tag was obtained from the Harmonia: Journal of Arts Research and Education 22 (2) (2022): 227-240232 Customs Service as a sign of payment of the cigarette sales tax (Castles, 1982). To increase state revenue in the form of tax and cigarette excise taxes, the Dutch East Indies government implemented import substitution policies, granting British- American-Tobacco (BAT) a license to build its first factory of white machine cigarettes in the city of Cirebon in 1925 and Surabaya in 1928. In addition to cigarette products, one of the tobacco industries that did a lot of advertising promotion in the Dutch East Indies era was the Shag Van Nelle tobac- co factory which successfully captured the market interest in the 1930s. The success of Van Nelle’s marketing was supported by its courage to advertise in various maga- zine media and newspapers such as Kedja- wen, D’Orient, Sin Po, Pandji Poestaka, and others with the themes of modernization of community life in the Dutch East Indies (Hermanu, 2006). Among the indigenous communi- ties, cigarette industries originally produ- ced on the household industry scale began to appear especially in the Kudus region at the end of the 19th century. The pre- sence of clove cigarettes produced by Haji Djamhari, which according to society, can cure asthma, began to be produced in large quantities and sold for general public con- sumption in Kudus (Budiman, 2016). The success of the clove cigarette industry was finally enjoyed by Chinese entrepreneurs who made use of the lucrative findings of the indigenous people into a clove busi- ness conglomerate with a global reach of marketing lasting up to the 21st century. One decade later, Haji Djamhari’s clove cigarette findings became a large-scale in- dustrial product in the hands of Nitisemito who was considered the pioneer of the clo- ve cigarette industry in Indonesia, with a picture of three circles on all of the packs of his cigarettes called “Bal Teloe”, “Bal Tiga”, or “Tiga Bola” (S. Margana, 2014). Nitisemito carried out the marketing communications with creative concepts such as renting Fokker aircraft from the Dutch East Indies (Koninklijk Lucht Mat- schapij/KLM) airline worth 200 guilders to distribute flyers of promotional pamphlets by air in Jakarta and Bandung. Nitisemito also sponsored traditional performances and modern theaters such as plays, sha- dow puppet shows, wayang orang (traditio- nal Javanese plays), etc., that the people of the Dutch East Indies favored. Nitisemito also pioneered modern sales promotion by providing gifts and bonuses as a sales volume incentive. Some packets of ciga- rettes can be exchanged for prizes such as glasses, plates, cups, watches, clocks, and even bicycles which are luxuries of those days(S. Margana, 2014). The success story of Kretek King Nitisemito inspired both indigenous and Chinese entrepreneurs to establish new clove cigarette factories. The established factories spread from Kudus to other cities such as Semarang, Surabaya, Blitar, Kediri, Malang, Surakarta, Tegal, Pekalongan, Cilacap, Banyumas, and Ci- rebon. City, Social Changes, and Lifestyle De- velopment in the Press Media during Dutch East Indies Era The social change process that trans- formed the Dutch East Indies colonized so- ciety from the traditional feudal agrarian society to the modern urban society began when the Agrarian Law (Agrarische-Wet) of 1870 was applied. The law opened the pos- sibility of liberalizing the colonial economy and trade system to capital private as well as foreign capital outside the Dutch. The liberalization of the colonial economy led to a process of modernization for the colo- nized people in the Dutch East Indies. Mo- dern cities with all of their infrastructure and superstructure were soon built by the Dutch Indies government on a large scale, especially in Java, Sumatra, Bali, and Sula- wesi. The settlement of capitalist business- men and white professionals in these mo- dern cities as the upper layers of the social strata of the Dutch East Indies society had brought a system of values, lifestyle, civi- lization, and modern Western culture that they embraced. The beginning of the 20th century was a new era in the politics of the Bedjo Riyanto et al., Lifestyle Ambiguity: The Visuals of Cigarette Advertisements 233 colonial state marked by the application of ethical policy (good deed repayment policy) with three priority programs edu- cation, irrigation, and transmigration. All three programs encouraged the Dutch East Indies to enter the process of transformati- on into a modern society. Intensive cultural contacts between modern Western civilization and indige- nous traditional feudal agrarian cultures (especially the royal culture developed in the traditional royal centers in Vorstenlan- den) spawned a new cultural hybridization or cultural acculturation called the Indis culture. This mixed culture became a new way of life that rapidly spread and was adopted by all social strata of society in the Dutch East Indies (Wertheim, 1956). Modern communication systems utilizing modern media communication technology soon became a vital need for the development of urban communities in the Dutch East Indies. In every major city in the Dutch East Indies, newspapers or magazines using Dutch, Malay, Chinese, or local languages (such as Javanese, Sun- danese, etc.) were published (Von Faber, 1930). The modernization of the Dutch In- dies’ consumption since the beginning of the 20th century was portrayed in press advertisements that clearly illustrated the dynamic development of new lifes- tyles in urban areas. The advertisement was published in various Dutch language press media such as De Locomotief, Java Bode, Bataviaasch Handelsblad, De Ni- euwe Vorstenlanden, Soerabaiasch Han- delsblad, and other Malay press such as Betawi, Sin Po, Trade News, Betawi, etc., during the 1870s period. until the 1940s the advertisement depicted consumption pat- terns among the new economic elite (rich nouveau) and the new middle class of both white (Dutch and European American), Chinese and Foreign Eastern, and Indige- nous peoples. Through various advertising infor- mation, the Dutch East Indies became an arena of marketing field struggles and consumer market of various industrial products produced by western developed countries. The new lifestyle due to the growth of modern cities with all facilities and pub- lic services, had formed a dandy society among the elite and the middle class of the Indies communities. Information about these products was obtained from adver- tisements in newspapers and magazines. The well-known brands of daily needs products from global companies were al- ways advertised in newspapers or maga- zines and became the consumption of mo- dern lifestyles at that time. Health care and the use of modern medicines in hospitals, professional doctors, and pharmacies with their medical products were introduced through various press advertisements. The Role of Advertisement in the Ciga- rette Industry Marketing Competition The visuals of advertisements pre- sented in various media have designated purposes and multiple interpretations. Da- vid Ogilvy, a renowned advertising figure and founder of Ogilvy & Mathers adverti- sing agency, stated that advertising has a dual role. On the one hand, advertising is a medium of information to transmit com- mercial or non-commercial messages to audiences. On the other hand, it also ser- ves as an artwork with all of its visually enthralling elements. The synthesis of the messages should be easy to comprehend (legible) and contain a clear message (sing- le-minded) aesthetically and creatively. Building customer loyalty to realize brand-loving customer is a key to the suc- cess of modern marketing that big cigaret- te companies have realized since the Dutch East Indies. As a multinational company marketed its products in the Dutch East Indies, it had the white cigarette industry. Therefore, advertising messages conveyed through an artistic, persuasive, and creati- ve visual language designed by graphic ar- tists from the Netherlands were displayed on the pages of various newspapers and magazines in the era. Chronologically, the development of advertising visuals in the tobacco and ci- Harmonia: Journal of Arts Research and Education 22 (2) (2022): 227-240234 garette industries published in the press media during the colonial period (the early 20th century before the Japanese occupa- tion of 1942) represented the spirit of sty- listic eclecticism that can be grouped into two stages. The form is (1) an introducti- on/ product information form and (2) a dramatic narrative advertisement form. In this period, the advertisement did not only convey the use value of a product, but it also built the perception and delivered the symbolic value of the product (change va- lue) to its customers. Consumers are sug- gested to require a symbolic consumption associated with prestige, self-image, or awareness of the exclusivity of their social classes as the essence of the lifestyle of the era. Thousands of guilders were spent by the white cigarette industry to put cigaret- te advertisements in various press media and produce enamel advertisements from Italy and France to be installed as outdoor media advertisements in the Dutch East Indies. Some of the most aggressive ad- vertisers in the press media, which also produced outdoor enamel advertisements were the Van Nelle shipping tobacco com- panies, BAT, Philip Morris, ATC, Faroka, R.J. Reynolds, and Jacobson van den Berg. Various brands of cigarettes such as Ca- mel, Mascot, Abdulla, Lucky Strike, Caps- tan, Davros, Van Nelle, etc., were adver- tised in almost every issue of newspaper and magazine publications. Marketing promotion activities (pro- pagandamiddels) in the form of top-class media advertising were still limited and undertaken only by the white cigarette companies. This is because white cigaret- tes, representing the segmented tastes of the middle and upper class of Western co- lonial consumers, were still a class marker as well as a symbol of lifestyle modernity. Meanwhile, clove cigarette companies, mostly owned by indigenous people and Chinese businessmen, preferred to pro- mote their marketing in the form of prizes, sweepstakes, sponsorship of public per- formances, and so forth (the term is now downstream media advertising) as exemp- lified by the cigarette company Nitisemito in Kudus . This was by the target segmen- tation of consumers, which was the lower class society as the majority of the popu- lation. Figure 2 Garrick Cigarette Adverstisement on (d’Orient magazine, 1924a) The visuals of cigarette advertise- ments were getting more and more imp- roved. Garrick’s cigarette advertisement produced by UK Garbert Lambert & But- ler was the pioneer of display advertising form with a dramatic narrative which was distributed in the Dutch East Indies by the international cigarette company British- American Tobacco Coy (Java) Ltd. It was published on the page of d’Orient maga- zine No. 39, dated September 27, 1924 (Fi- gure 2). The Garrick’s cigarette advertise- ment used an endorser of David Garrick, the greatest playwright of the era. It was the first advertisement in the campaign to promote cigarette products in the Dutch East Indies using the testimony and quotes of praise by the endorser. The readers were expected to align the quality of the adver- tised cigarette product with the achieve- ments and the greatness of David Garrick. The persuasive value of an adverti- sement was not only a display of product packaging as a form of direct selling (hard- Bedjo Riyanto et al., Lifestyle Ambiguity: The Visuals of Cigarette Advertisements 235 sell), but also as presented in “The Seven Stars” Cigarettes advertisement, produced by Nanyang Bros Tobacco Coy Batavia which was published in d’Orient magazi- ne No. 35 dated on August 30, 1924 (Figure 2). This advertisement ilustrated the pictu- re of the cigarette itself that looks piecefull and enjoyment. Figure 3 Seven Stars Advertisement on (d’Orient magazine, 1924b) Figure 4 Mac Gillavry Cigarette Advertise- ment on (d’Orient magazine, 1925) A parodic approach to colonial so- cial stratification as a visual appeal was presented attractively in the H.D. Mac Gil- lavry cigarette advertisement (Figure 4). This cigarette advertisement produced in Ambarawa-Central Java was published in the d’Orient no. 40 magazine dated Octo- ber 3, 1925. The sociographic segmentation approach appeared to have been utilized by describing the three most important so- cial classes of the Indies at that time: white people (Dutch or European) as the ruling elite, the eastern (Chinese or Arab) foreign class as a minority between the middle classes, as well as the indigenous people as the lowest-held majority. All social classes were portrayed as loyal consumers of to- bacco products. The new tendency to lure in the eas- tern culture with all of its aspects of life (orientalism) greatly affected the interna- tional cigarette industry. R.J. Reynolds To- bacco Cigarette Company (RJRT) success- fully launched the Camel white cigarette product (marketed in late 1913) that com- bined Turkish tobacco flavor with Burley and Bright tobacco, which was then intro- duced as the flavor of native American ci- garettes (Figure 5). The oriental exoticism in the visual discourse of cigarette adver- tisements can be further seen in Camel ci- garette advertisements. The advertisement was published in d’Orient magazine in 1937 (Hermanu, 2006). In the era of the 1930s, which was the culmination of the Dutch East Indies advertising industry, there was a new me- dia called enamel advertisement. Enamel advertisement is a medium to convey an advertising message that is manufactured through a series of printing processes but not on paper but an iron board or steel pla- te. Enamel advertisement can serve as an indoor advertising media as well as an out- door advertising media. The modernizati- on themes depicting the process of social changes in the Dutch East Indies were the most prominent visual appeal of Enamel advertising and were most often featured by its illustrators. Harmonia: Journal of Arts Research and Education 22 (2) (2022): 227-240236 Figure 5. Camel Cigarette Advertisement on (d’Orient magazine, 1937) With the style of naturalism, the beauty and elegance of the Dutch East Indies colony were presented through astonishing technical skills in terms of accuracy, anatomy details, proportion, perception, lighting, brightness, color, three-dimensional plasticity, and the fashi- on style of indigenous and white people being displayed. The Mooi style of Indie or the elegant Indies involved the visuals of design and advertising fields that showed a combination of Western and Eastern vi- sual vocabulary that produced the popular eclectic style known as the Indies style of that era (Burhan, 2008). These tobacco enamel advertise- ments serve to show the importance of marketing and promotion practices. The- refore they were reproduced in magazines or newspapers. A series of commercials made by Shag Van Nelle Tobacco Compa- ny was more of a painting that built a nar- rative about the drama of colonial life in the Dutch East Indies as the central theme or the main idea (Figure 6). Human figures with diverse cultural identities and social roles were widely explored as cigarette ad- vertisement figures that were emotionally considered to represent and serve as a link between the product and its customers. Character figures with a variety of ethnici- ty, profession, social class, and cultural af- filiation were used to help explain how the product was functioning or used. Figure 6. Shag Van Nelle Tobacco Enamel Advertising in (Shag Van Nelle Tobacco Enamel Advertising, n.d.) The style of Oriental Modern Eclec- tic advertisement design is a blend of the western advertising visual design styles with the traditional eastern life, resulting in hybridity that reverses the realities of colonial life into a dreamland of imaginary modernity in the advertising space. When within a period, there is an overlap of si- multaneously present various visual styles of different periods, a stylistic eclecticism occurs, an absence of a dominant visual style that serves as the marker of an era. Every period has a historical mo- ment that gives birth to certain visual fea- tures called visual styles as an aesthetic paradigm that reflects the soul of the era (zeitgeist). The visual style takes place in a series of cycles of birth, growth, the peak of development, decline, and even an end. The visual style that manages to be the commonly acknowledged style of a certain period is called the “zeitgest” (soul of the times). In the process of historical deve- lopment, the visual style as the marker of an era does not always present linear but is full of twists that are simultaneous and progressive, overlapping, and far from Bedjo Riyanto et al., Lifestyle Ambiguity: The Visuals of Cigarette Advertisements 237 monolithic nature. Some circumstances produce a plurality of mutually coexistent styles between the old and the new, pre- decessor and successor, inventor and fol- lower that occurs dialectically. Instead of showing Indonesia’s exo- tic like in the ”Mooi Indie” era, the adver- tising tends to show Indonesia’s new side. Commonly in Indonesia, there is a time period of the ”Mooi Indie” painting era, which was popular to show The life of the indigenous Indonesian people as a harmo- nious, exotic, traditional, foreign, and mys- terious ancient world life (Burhan, 2008). The field of modern Indonesian painting in the Dutch East Indies and the Republic of Indonesia today can be divided into four stages; The first phase (1900-1942): Mooi Indie; The second phase (1942-1950): In- donesian Identity; The third phase (1950- 1965): nationally oriented and some were more internationally oriented; The fourth phase (1965-1995): figurative art. (Span- jaard, Helena, 2018, pp. 100-102). Mooi Indie resembles a lo Western and Eastern forms of Art were dominated by the orien- talism of ”Mooi-Indie” art. Orientalism is based on forming a colonial image of the world of exotic and special Eastern popu- lations (Iswahyudi, 2020). Most modern cigarette advertise- ments present the beauty of Indonesia as it was in the Mooi Indie era. Aziz’s research shows the representational meaning in Dji Sam Soe’s “Mahakarya” advertisement, namely nationalism in Mooie Indie packa- ging and Balinese cultural inclusion. The representation of national iden- tity in Mooie Indie shows love for the ho- meland. Love for the country of birth is visualized as the state of Indonesia. It is in the form of own love country (Aziz et al., 2019). On the other hand, the advertise- ment showed the opposite picture of the painting. Instead, it was rather depicted as a process that had undergone progress and enjoyed the modern lifestyle as what “their white masters” enjoyed (though that was only in the imaginary realities of the ad- vertisement space). The eclectic visual nar- rative of romantic modern Orientalism in the cigarette advertisements in the Indies became a simulation of imaginary reality. Basically, a lot of ads make the audi- ence feel it is the ideal form of something they want. As explained in the Borau re- search, this study explains that advertise- ments that use female models become the ideal picture of a perfect woman. This be- came real, and many women who watched the advert made the female model their competitor in the ad (Borau & Bonnefon, 2019). In the strategic management of a brand’s communication, advertisements play a significant role. Today’s advertising strategy aims to differentiate their products from those of competitors by connecting consumers’ lives to fictional worlds and inspiring strong associations with the pro- duct. Organizations are constructed using myths, different symbols, and metaphors in advertising’s verbal and visual compo- nents. This accomplishes tasks including generating fresh meanings, transferring them, and enhancing their significance (Yildirim, 2021). One of the best methods to introdu- ce any product, concept, or service to its intended market is through advertising. Advertisements actively contribute to the dissemination of ideologies, the creation of meaning, and the justification of the fundamental principles underlying the ca- pitalist system. The target audience must be able to understand the messages being conveyed through advertising for this pro- cess to be successful. In other words, custo- mers’ ability to perceive and interpret ad- vertising communications is a noteworthy barrier to building favorable associations with and positions for the brand in their thoughts (Yildirim, 2021). The visual style of Oriental Roman- ce that captures the lifestyle expression of Indies hybridity is pseudo modernity of lifestyle resulting from the integration of the colonized communities in the Dutch East Indies territory (1925-1942). Cigarette advertisements from the Dutch East Indies era in communicative, creative and aesthe- Harmonia: Journal of Arts Research and Education 22 (2) (2022): 227-240238 tic visuals appeared since the operation of the international cigarette industry which opened its factory in Java in the early 20th century. At the same time, there are va- rious modern advertising agencies that employ professional ad designers from the Netherlands. Display advertisements that pre- sented images as the power of attraction no longer gave product information but showed romantic and dramatic narratives that recorded the ideal lifestyle of colonial society at that time. Through hand dra- wing techniques, the cigarette advertise- ment graphic artist presented the process of modernizing the various social layers of the Dutch East Indies colonial society. Cigarette advertisements became a hyper-realistic world show, an imaginary world that described the social interactions of various social layers involving the colo- nizers and the colonized. The ideal picture in the visual narrative is contrary to the so- cial reality of the segregated colonial socie- ties in which there were strictly social and political barriers to distinguish between the white colonizers and the colonized majority of indigenous peoples. The ima- ginary spaces for cigarette advertisements become an arena for presenting the hybrid Indies lifestyle in various forms of fashion and consumption of other modern indust- rial products. It also describes the dreams of indigenous people who want to be mo- dern and a narrative of how multicultura- lism is practiced in everyday life. The self-identity displayed in the vi- sual narrative of cigarette advertisements shows more personal meaning than the colonial era’s social collectivity. Celebrities of the popular industrial world, such as public idols, were often used as an endor- ser and appeal for its product sales. They became a lifestyle reference and charm followed by fanatical devotees. Being mo- dern is celebrating the body as a spectacle as well as showing off popularity as a pres- tigious achievement. In a situation of pros and cons among supporters and opponents of cigarette and tobacco consumption which is increasing sharply in Indonesia at this time, the re- sults of this research can be used as input in the formulation of policies and laws re- garding substances that are permitted or prohibited in advertising campaigns for cigarettes and tobacco products. It is based on the spirit of protection for the consumer community. The choice of lifestyle themes as the power of cigarette advertising persuasion is also expected to be an interdisciplinary study of sociology, anthropology, com- munication, marketing, media culture, psychology, etc. This is to get a more ho- listic outcome to enrich our perspective on the various dimensions of the issue, which concerns the cigarette and tobacco products industry that continues to cause controversy both in the scale of the natio- nal and the global community up to the present day. CONCLUSION Some of the layers of meaning that can be inferred from the visual narrati- ve of cigarette advertisements during the Dutch East Indies era are: first, the ciga- rette advertisement simulation space ser- ves as propaganda for The Dutch East In- dies government’s success in advancing and modernizing the indigenous society through its emancipatory political poli- cy. Secondly, the cigarette advertisement simulation space serves as a demonstrati- on of an egalitarian society that dissolves the discrimination and segregation of the colonial social stratification. Third, the ci- garette advertisement simulation room promotes the image of lifting the indige- nous people as important actors who were always highlighted as the majority of ciga- rette product consumers although in the social reality, they remained third-class citizens who were underdeveloped and underestimated. 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