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Most of Indonesia’s adland rooting for Jokowi, local agencies side with strongman Prabowo

Today's cover of the Jakarta Globe

Today’s cover of the Jakarta Globe

As Indonesia waits for the final votes to be counted in its presidential election, advertising industry executives have said that the man expected to win – Joko ‘Jokowi’ Widodo – is the best option for adland.

One chief executive of an international advertising agency told Mumbrella: “The industry, by and large, is supporting Jokowi as he is more foreign investment friendly, not mentioning he openly supports the creative industry.”

“He also represents pluralism, fairness, meritocracy, transparency… everything that is against the new order that Suharto stands for. This is something that is very appealing to young Indonesia adults – the kind of people that work for us.”

Update: Jokowi has won Indonesia’s presidential race.

“With Jokowi at the helm, we are guaranteed freedom of speech and expression,” he added.

However, some local agencies in Indonesia are supporting Jokowi’s main rival, former army general Prabowo Subianto because, one source suggested “He is big on local industry protectionism and would shut out foreign players.”

“Not only that, we believe that the old strongman approach will restrict any form of freedom of speech and expression,” he said.

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