absolutelyBangkok archive · Fashion & Style
Originally published March 16, 2009
Recently, while trying to concentrate, I somehow caught a glimpse of an ad that was both ingeniously Thai and refreshingly tantalizing. Most probably Khun Ladda Tangsuphachai, our overzealous director of cultural monitoring at the Ministry of Culture, just wasn’t yet aware of the ad. But how much more nipple can you show without actually showing it?
The ad below seen in a Bangkok dining guide features the German digestive Jägermeister which was already a remedy of our grandgrandparents. Jägermeister basically allows you to eat anything in any quantity. A Jägermeister or two on top of it and you’re all ready again. But there’s a catch: to market the herbal schnapps in Thailand you’ll have to add a twist.
That is, you’re advised to drink it at -18° Celsius to achieve advertised effect of not being able to hide drinking it. See? Unthinkable what would happen if the anti-alcohol-on-Songkran lobby would get hold of this ad promoting kinky befuddlement. How much lower can Thai culture sink. But don’t expect the industry and artists to give in that easily.
We humbly remember actress
Chotiros Suriyawong for being publicly punished for “that” revealing dress. All right, she apologized under tears. But most who accused her probably stored Chotiros’ images on their hard drives. Thailand remains an easy hunting ground for hypocrites and pharisees.
Which is why even this weekend, when you would have been wondering around Ratchada, you would have seen a crowd of about 500 massage girls and Asian clients who had all stopped what they would normally be doing and were crowded around some outdoor plasma screens watching the Manchester United — Liverpool game.
Maybe they had all money riding on it, but it was that odd Thai mix of mercenary commerce and general friendliness that is still baffling after years over here. At the same time one is surprised to see this Jägermeister ad in a local booklet…
That’s one of the beauties of Thailand. Land where the seeming is the real and reality appearance.
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