[Yea, they're nude, it's body paint, can you tell?]
Don’t they have anything better to do than going after a bunch of skanky looking models scantily clad in body paint. There is child prostitution, internal political issues, prostitution in general, the economy to worry about it. Not this. Let it go!
And, how can this be a law?
Section 32 of the Alcohol Beverage Control Act 2008 prohibits the advertising of alcohol drinks, their brands and trademarks in a way that encourages consumption, directly or indirectly.
What are they trying to do ban alcohol completely from Thailand? The whole point of advertising is to make products encouraging to consume. Why don’t they just be blunt about it? Alcohol is illegal. There, that is more clear and giving me less of a headache. Beer companies in Thailand sponsor concerts, we should ban that too because it encourages alcohol consumption. We should close all the bars in Thailand, but they are not going to do that because it will totally sink Thai tourism. They are just scratching the surface and just fronting by saying alcohol consumption is wrong but not really acting on it. What a load of hypocrisy! By the way, blurring alcohol bottles in lakorn doesn’t help much, it’s downright annoying and makes me focus on it more.
Leo Beers (a beer brand under Singha Beer company, the largest beer company in Thailand) releases a girly calendar with their logo in the background each year. This year was no different and the calendar was produce by “Lukkade” Metinee Kingpayom and apparently it’s against the law because it’s a form of print advertisement for alcohol. So the government is banning the sale and distribution of this controversial calendar. Now there is all this buzz about it. Read more about it here and an opinion piece about it here.
More pictures from the calendar here. They edited out the Leo logo out for legal reasons, I’m assuming.
I know many of you might harp on me for having this viewpoint, like several readers at Manager news website who are condemning “Lukkade” Metinee Kingpayom, calling her unladylike, not Thai for bringing smut into Thai culture. Personally, I would never buy the calendar, I’m a girl who doesn’t drink but it doesn’t mean I’m going to force my believe system on you. Everyone wants to save the community and restore traditions, the community doesn’t need saving, you need to save yourself first. Sure it’s the against the law (note some laws need to be broken), but the calendar is not even that bad–it’s just a bunch of skanky looking girls (hopefully they are not like that in real life) posing semi-nude. If you don’t like it don’t buy it.
The models at the opening of the calendar
Actress Anna Ris and “Lukkade” Metinee Kingpayom at the opening event.
Very well done.I liked the calendar very much. How can I get one.
Thank you for linking to my blog back then, Lyn.
Further to this original story, would just like to add that last night while on Petchaburi Road I saw the entire SIDE of a SKYSCRAPER decked out in the Leo Beer logo!
Granted there were no nude models or associations with fun, but as far as in-your-face advertising goes, this will be hard to beat!
I honestly cannot get my head around the Thai alcohol advertising laws – the answers seem to vary with who you ask, and which day of the week it is!
Thailand needs a wake up call. Are they like 5 fighting for candies? Useless. Might as well ban the product of beer making. I clicked one of the link provided by the above article and read a section where they cannot associate fun with the beer advertisement. So are we supposedly suppose to drink when we are angry, sad, etc. I drink for the hell of FUN…
If this was America, we would call this art, but since it’s Thailand it’s automatically slutty.
LEO Calendars are known for being over the top sexy, and this year has not failed.
I totally agree that there are better things for the Thai government to worry about than this.
Omg, I would feel so disgusted and violated if I was nude and had somebody body paint me! That’s disgusting! I wouldn’t care if they had clothes on, but paint?! How much are you girls getting paid for this??? Umm, I don’t think it’s a lot. But I agree, I don’t think Lukkade should be criticized that badly. She used to be a goddess model herself. But she wasn’t skanky looking like the ones above.
Ewwwww…disgusting!Do these girls even know what they’re doing?They’re not even pretty either.
The girls are .. BUTT UGLY!
Lyn, I come to this simple conclusion people on this planet is bored out of there minds. Thus, they pick simple non-issues as these to fight over. What you suggest about putting up a real fight over child prostitution, internal political issues, prostitution in general and the economy is something the media ignores on purpose. If they actually did focus on serious issues that need addressing problems could be solved. Yet, we as a society don’t want those really tough issues resolved for whatever reason. Here on planet Earth worthless issues like a semi-nude girls calender is top concern.
I thought the law is that you can’t give it out but you can sell it so that is why this year Lukkade decided she will sell it then.
It almost look real, but to take a close look you can tell that it is body paint.
Totally agree with you.
Lyn, I agree with you and respect your viewpoint, especially the part about not forcing your set of beliefs on others…very open-minded. But, I do think some of the commentators condemning Lukkade are out of line. Lukkade’s a grown woman and using a sexy/sex sells concept for advertising a product is nothing new. Like you mentioned, where is the outrage for ‘real’ problems like prostitution and the dwindling economy? I also wonder if any of these commentators are ‘outraged’ with the overuse of ‘R’ scenes in lakorns. I guess they don’t worry about how those misogynistic scenes and their implications regarding women taint Thai culture at all.