When you think of any form of advertisement, you probably think of a long process that involves many people until a final decision is reached. And if anything that can cause controversy or mixed message is spotted, someone would probably be like, "Hey, I think the public would object to this" or "Guys, let's not do blackface to sell charcoal doughnuts. It's very unnecessary."
However, that doesn't seem to be the case, well, at least for these awkward advertisements I've recently spotted.
Well, this ad seems like a calculated risk that was miscalculated. Obviously, it plays with the double entendre of the phrasal verb "get off" as in innocently leaving the aeroplane when you arrive in Thailand and well, to have an orgasm (we're all adults here). Someone with a dirty mind (guilty as charged) would get the latter right away and have a chuckle about it but, perhaps this is too edgy for a brand like AirAsia. Also, it's too harsh and unfair to Thailand. Okay, we have some red-light seedy stuff but we also have other wonderful family-friendly things, too.
It would have been a perfect ad for sex tourists, though. But that's still eww, very very eww.
This picture was on Topson's website, a school uniform brand. It's not a picture for an upcoming Thai edition of Teen Mom. Nattanon Dungsunenarn, co-founder and editor-in-chief at Spaceth.co, first pointed the unintentional message of a very young family out to Thai netizens and thousands agreed. Our collective mind probably wouldn't go there had teenage pregnancy not been on the rise in the past 15 years, according to UNFPA Thailand.
Leave it to Bang Kwang Central Prison in Nonthaburi to make light out of at least 15 years of imprisonment up to the death penalty. Organised by the Corrections Department, Run for Second Chances 2019 was for a good cause to raise funds to provide offenders with vocational skills before they rejoin society. A lot of drug dealers are imprisoned in there and this is where they administrate lethal injection (I co-wrote a book about the very prison many moons ago). Given the severity, notoriety and seriousness of the prison, many would have agreed that doing a photo prop that a family can pretend to be inmates together is too flippant of an idea.
Are you supposed to smile when you take a photo with it? Also, they get the prisoner's uniform wrong.
