Posted on by Vishnu Devarajan
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What can we learn from Thai Advertising?
10 May
Believe it or not, I spent more than two days last week just looking at Thai TVCs on YouTube.
You should try it sometime. The TVCs were all funny, memorable, simple, cute and weird.
They don’t have any hangups about having fun, being macho or going off tangent.
They are also not fixated that the story needs to be exactly what the brand stands for.
I think their benchmarks are simply to be impactful and leave a good lasting impression.
They’ve taken the math out of creative filtration and embraced advertising as advertising.
That is, to dramatise and connect with consumers.
Well you may say they can do that because they have less restrictions and they can advertise beer, parade pretty girls and show bare bodies. All points well noted.
But that still does not explain why most of our work is drab, politically correct, derivative and safe.
Something any in-house agency of a brand can whip with a couple of design students.
No disrespect intended for in-house agencies and design students.
I also notice the Cancel culture quite strong in our agencies, where the agency will cancel its own ideas without showing them to their clients for fear of being too “clever”, or worse still “trying to be daring.”
Let me tell you where the great advertising ideas are: in the trash cans of agencies.
Take your trash can of internally-rejected ideas to your client one day, and you may discover something.
Together.
OK, OK, every country has crap advertising and the stuff we see from Thailand is the top 10% of the lot.
I’ll accept that excuse, but we don’t even have 5% that is amazing enough.
Just take look at some “old” funny Thai TVCs I have compiled for you below and see if you like them.
Click the links to view. PLEASE view.
“When you entertain your audience, they will stay with you. Do it well, and they will hear what you say and remember you.
Some of this year’s winning ads are great examples of how to do this both creatively and effectively.”
Excerpted from Kantar’s Creative Effectiveness Awards 2023 Book.
Black Cat Whisky – Black Cat – 1997
Gangster mogul sits contemplating his empire and dancing girls. His flunky comes to tell him that one of his debtors is drinking ‘Black’ – ie, expensive whisky. Furious, he orders his men to descend on the hapless debtor. Helicopters, dozens of cars and heavies surround the man’s house. He explains he is drinking ‘Black Cat’, that only costs Baht 130. Harmony is restored.
A young couple is letting rip in the living room, dancing wildly to a pop tune. They swing their hips and toss their long manes of black hair around. Mum, meanwhile, busily vacuums the floor under their feet as they dance. Once done, she opens the vacuum cleaner and removes the dust-box which, it turns out, is absolutely clean. “Clairol Anti-Dandruff Shampoo.”
A weightlifter hoists a massive weight above his head and waits for the competition steward to press the scoring button that would allow him to put the weight down. The button won’t work. There’s a technical problem. He is told to “wait a moment”. He holds on, and on and on? sweat pouring down his face, his muscles twitching in agony. “Muscle pain? Try Counterpain.
An airport, late one evening. A man talking on the telephone is waving his arms around wildly, making strange noises, trotting like a horse. Has he flipped? Been overworking? No. He’s telling his daughter a bedtime story via a videophone. Until she falls asleep. “TelecomAsia believes that one picture can say more than a million words… Technology for tomorrow.”
Agency: Leo Burnett, Bangkok Creative Director: Patamavalai Ratanapoom Copywriter: Surussavadi Chuarchart Art Director: Siri Amnouybudhamate/ Wanchai Assanaugsanakul Agency Producer: Paranee Jethsomma Production Company: The Film Factory, Bangkok Director: Pongpaibool Sithiku Producer: Mongkol Nirunpong Agency Network: Leo Burnett Product: Telecomasia Title: Daddy Duration: 61 Country: Thailand Year: 1994
Sealect Tuna – Walking – 2002
A shapely young woman, in a dinky top and tight, short skirt, stalks seductively through an office. The men stop work and drool. But alone in the sanctity of the elevator – she gasps out frantic lungfuls of air and her stomach bursts free into a bulging pot belly! “Introducing Low Fat Sealect Tuna. Suck in no more”.
A young chap at home is chomping very rapidly. His overweight Mum sees an opportunity in this and utilises the vibrating jaw of her Chiclets-obsessed son as the energy source for her personal vibrating weight-loss belt. Chiclets Sticks. It’s useful.
Agency: J. Walter Thompson, Bangkok Creative Director: Pinit Chantaprateep Copywriter: Thamrong Wangsawangkul/Warawut Kaennakham Art Director: Kittiphan Palmoke Agency Producer: Poj Rajkulchai Production Company: Phenomena, Bangkok Director: Thanonchai Sornsrivichai Agency Network: JWT
Krung Thai Bank – Murder – 2003
A woman comes home in a thunderstorm, enters her house, screams. She dashes to the telephone – it’s dead! Cut to her husband earlier, about to scale a live fish – the lights go out. The flapping fish splashes him with red sauce – and when he goes to wash, no water flows.
Thus she finds her husband in the dark, seemingly covered with blood, and holding a kitchen knife. VO: “Avoid this domestic thriller. Let Krung Thai Bank take care of your household bills.”
A white collar guy corners a colleague in the office kitchen to tell him about the “Kill Bill” DVD he rented. But he keeps freezing in mid-sentence and repeating himself again and again. “Then she sta..sta..sta..sta..stabs one of the gangsters.” “Suddenly, suddenly, suddenly, suddenly.”
Poor colleague is understandably perplexed. It seems like the man’s DVD player has more than a few problems. Soken DVD – “Plays smoothly.”
Agency: Euro RSCG Flagship, Bangkok Creative Director: Chukiat Jarensuk/Passapol Limpisirisan/Wiboon Leepakpreeda Copywriter: Sittichai Okkararojkij/Passapol Limpisirisan Art Director: Wiboon Leepakpreeda/Nimit Songsri Agency Producer: Phunyawee Intamas Production Company: Matching Studio, Bangkok Director: Suthon Petchsuwan Producer: Ngamit Kruewan Agency Network: Havas Product: Soken Dvd Player Title: Kill Bill Kill Bill Duration: 47 Country: Thailand Year: 2004
