Not allowed to advertise booze on TV in Thailand so now everyone makes soda water
I don't know how long ago it happened, but Thailand banned the advertising of all liquor first, and then moved on to banning the advertising of beer and wine coolers as well. It started slowly just like it did in America: First no one was allowed to glamorize drinking, then no one was allowed to show people drinking the beer in the commercials. They then went one step further and banned the advertising of beer on television altogether.
The most popular Thai beer is Chang... i hate it
At one point the government made it illegal to advertise that you even sold beer, which was problematic for bars (including the one that I owned) because we all had those promotional signs on the front of our bars. Many places had their business sign paid for by the beer manufacturers in exchange for a portion of the sign being an ad for a particular brand. There was a time when all bars had a bunch of trash bags covering their light up signs out of fear of being fined for having these things visible from the street. This "law" was quickly rescinded but it was a strange time.
Anyway, because beer advertisers are a relentless bunch, we all of a sudden started seeing all the beer manufacturers pop up with new branches of their brand that included non alcoholic soda water. Chang, Singha, and Leo (the big manufacturers of beer in Thailand) all had a "soda water branch" in their company portfolio.
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The commercials would feature sexy socialites hanging out at what is clearly super swanky night clubs and dancing the night away while all enjoying their bottles of soda water..... because that is what people do you know? Go to clubs and drink soda water all night because it is super profitable for the club owner.
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You know that old expression "life finds a way" ? Well i find it quite comical about how the government makes silly laws somehow believing that people are all of a sudden not going to want booze anymore because there are no commercials and then the manufacturers comply with the new silly laws and simply circumvent them by introducing another product. Any time the g-men try to suggest that they are attempting to advertise booze to kids by having their logo on a football jersey or something they an always respond with "oh no, we would never do that... that is just for the soda water... we don't actually want anyone to buy the beer."
With the increasing regularity that states are legalizing cannabis, I have wondered how soon it will be before we start seeing commercials for distribution businesses. I am guessing there are specific state and federal (thanks FCC) laws against it, but I think eventually we will start to see it. I actually didn't think about it until you mentioned it but I can't remember the last time I saw a liquor commercial. I know they are out there... Maybe on cable TV. Someone it finds a way into my shopping cart anyway, so it can't be hurting them too much :)
Interesting, and makes perfect sense.
I recall being a kid and seeing an ad with a beautiful woman drinking from a liquor bottle. I was enamaored with it solely because the woman was so appealing. I had zero interest in what she was drinking, or ever drinking like her. I just wanted her clothes. :)
Crazy civil servants and politicians! Something must have gone weird in their heads! Haha! Who would drink soda water on its own?!
Lots of messy ethical standards in Thailand because they are trying so hard to be modern, progressive and accepted by the international communities and standards, resulting in nonsensical rules and pretentious standards! It’s all about face saving and aggrandizement of respectability!
My mom said this happen longtime ago.
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Very interesting ! Do you know when it happened? I went in Thailand 2 years ago and it seems to me that there were still / already ads on alcohol.
They even had t-shirts with the logo of the typical beer !
I'm waiting for you the next post!
The restrictions were just for TV advertisements. The government has knee-jerk reactions to various things and then makes "sweeping changes" such as banning the advertisement of these things altogether including to arrest people for having social media posts with a beer in a picture. They normally realize the scope of it is really impossible after about a month and then all of us just groan that it was an excuse for the corrupt police force to steal money from business owners. However, whenever something like this happens it normally ends up getting reverted a few months later.
The ban on TV advertising of alcohol is still there though. All the companies can advertise their products in sporting event signs and what not, but in order to do so they needed to have a non-alcohol product as well... which is why all of them do now.
yes that's crazy !
great post I like to see it