absolutelyBangkok archive · Culture & Arts
Originally published May 27, 2008
Thais seem to be born with a gene akin to shopping. Shopping is a highly advanced form of life in the Land of the Unworried. When a Thai doesn’t shop he or she is thinking about what to shop next. Which leads us to the topic: Somehow you have to promote all those good things people shall buy. Right. We’re talking about Thai advertisers. They’re some of the best in today’s highly paid dream factory of marketing and branding.
Ok, there’s the common Thai ad making cheap fun of others. Ridiculousness and the hyper katoey are other common features. But there’s the much grander world of globally recognized Thai advertisers. Recently, in Miami, the Clio Awards festival was held — the ad world’s version of the Oscars. The whole ad world is there. And Thai advertisers creamed off Silver Awards.
One could write a dissertation about the virtuosity and visuality of Thai creative directors. Let’s keep it simple. They’re good. They’re damn good. It’s not the nightly soap opera worth watching. It’s those ads inbetween that are worth watching. And you wouldn’t believe it: Whereas non-Thais consider it a deprivation of personal freedom to be exposed to ads, most Thai people love to watch them.
And by the way: With those ads we start a new category:
Top Thai Things. Outstanding things, persons and ideas made in Thailand. The next topic in the pipeline? Bangkok’s best cocktail — a Chocolate Martini.
You know a TTT?
Drop an email.
Back to those intriguing, stunning, aesthetically outstanding artworks of Thai ads. For good reasons Thailand has become a font of brilliantly off-the-wall TV spots. Judge for yourself:
In the first Clio-winner, titled
Shakespearean Gecko, a blooming romance between a pair of lizards is thwarted when the piece of ceiling tile they’re standing on cracks, sending them tumbling to their deaths. The people who witness the tragedy are crestfallen and vow to use only Shera brand ceiling board in the future:
The second spot, for Sylvania light blubs, builds on the idea that ghosts are scary only when it’s dark, while in bright light they become rather silly. A countryside family enjoys a daytime picnic while calmly observing the absurd, unscary ghosts who try to haunt them — one of which turns out to be not a ghost at all — just a transvestite. There you go again, a katoey! But, for about the first time, not a degraded one:
From the absolutelyBangkok archive. Back to all stories