Actor Prilly Latuconsina apologised after a LinkedIn advertising and marketing stunt drew backlash from younger Indonesians struggling to seek out jobs.
Latuconsina, 29, used the “Open to Work” badge on the employment-focused social networking platform on 26 January, with a message that stated she needed to realize some expertise exterior the the leisure trade in an “offline gross sales” position.
“I’m activating the hashtag #OpenToWork badge not as a result of I am missing actions, however as a result of I need to study one thing new,” she wrote in Indonesian, in line with an internet translation.
“All this time, I have been closely concerned within the movie trade and enterprise administration. Now I am curious to problem myself in a special house, like offline gross sales expertise. Assembly folks face-to-face, chatting, understanding their wants, and studying how a product is really obtained and felt immediately by shoppers.”
The LinkedIn badge is utilized by job seekers as an expert sign to recruiters and friends that they’re actively on the lookout for new roles.
Inside hours, her publish obtained greater than 30,000 reactions and job provides. In accordance with Indonesian outlet Detik, Latuconsina stated on Instagram that the reactions have been “nerve wracking” and he or she had begun responding to employment provides she had obtained.
She shared that she could be collaborating with an environmental care neighborhood, because it was according to her private pursuits, however she had additionally obtained a proposal from a media firm to do a part-time stint as a reporter.
“Then I’ll attempt using the KRL throughout rush hour to really feel what it is prefer to be an workplace employee,” she stated, referring to the commuter rail system that runs by capital Jakarta. “I don’t need to be careless. Though this can be a part-time job, I need to take full accountability for the belief given.”
Nevertheless, it was revealed that this was probably a advertising and marketing stunt; Marketing campaign Indonesia reported that of all of the provides Latuconsina obtained, she responded to a social media publish from toothpaste model Sensodyne and acknowledged that she would work as an offline gross sales consultant at Sensodyne Lab within the Summarecon Mall Bekasi.
The Impartial has reached out to representatives for Latuconsina and Sensodyne for remark.
Instantly after, Latuconsina’s publish started to get backlash from Indonesian jobseekers, who questioned whether or not an expert function utilized by jobseekers for real functions must be utilized by actors for what seems to be a advertising and marketing technique.
“For individuals who use it genuinely, it represents monetary strain, the stress of sending out dozens of purposes into the void, the quiet humiliation of being ignored. It’s not a enjoyable branding train. When somebody with Prilly’s degree of economic safety and current employment contract makes use of that badge as a marketing campaign hook, it turns a survival device right into a prop,” one person wrote on LinkedIn.
The anger towards Latuconsina’s publish seems to stem from Indonesia’s present employment challenges.
In accordance with official knowledge from Indonesia’s official company of statistics, Badan Pusat Statistik (BPS), roughly 7.35 million Indonesians have been unemployed as of November 2025, down barely from 7.46 million in August, however nonetheless important in a workforce of about 155 million folks.
The nationwide unemployment price stood at 4.74 per cent in November 2025, which indicated that almost 5 folks out of each 100 within the labour drive have been actively looking for work.
A BPS survey launched in 2025 additionally confirmed that round 59.4 per cent of employees have been employed in casual sectors.
Final yr, violent protests swept throughout the nation after it was revealed that members of the Home of Representatives obtained a month-to-month housing allowance, along with their salaries. The allowance, practically 10 instances the Jakarta minimal wage, was seen not solely extreme but in addition insensitive at a time when most individuals are grappling with hovering dwelling prices and taxes and rising unemployment.
“In the event you see many manufacturers and corporations commenting and providing jobs, it implies that really discovering a job isn’t that arduous – so long as you have got 27 million followers and also you’re a public determine,” one other wrote on Latuconsina’s Instagram.
Twenty-two yr previous Ebi, who graduated in August 2025 and has been interning at a human rights non-governmental organisation, informed The Straits Instances that she had despatched out greater than 100 job purposes and was but to be employed.
“Actually, I used to be offended; I even ranted about it on Twitter. The marketing campaign was actually insensitive,” she stated.
The collaboration with Sensodyne seems to have been cancelled after the web response to Latuconsina’s publish.
Latuconsina issued an apology in February on social media, saying she understood why folks have been “offended, disillusioned, or uncomfortable,” in line with a translated report by VOI.
“I’m conscious that my place and my life expertise should not the identical as everybody else, and I perceive why this will harm some folks,” she stated.
