Product Placement
Issue #36
Living the Thai life
By Charly Paap
Published: June 1st, 2008 | 3:06pm
While a Westerner in Thailand certainly won’t have any problems finding provisions — food stalls and convenience stores dot every corner — there are some interesting products to sift through. Here’s a mini guide of the most unusual:
Something’s fishy
Asia has an unparalleled obsession with seafood. Fishy snacks abound and include such favorites as “Squidy,” “Fisho,” and seafood mayonnaise-flavored Lay’s potato chips. Another popular snack is processed fish ball kabobs — think multicolored gefilte fish manipulated into various shapes. The cutest resemble kitty cats.
Liquid courage
Home to the original Red Bull, Krating Daeng, Thailand offers dozens of energy drinks. In small glass jars with colorful labels, they are more medicinal-looking than their Western counterparts (many are actually manufactured by pharmaceutical companies) and are certainly addictive. Even as Red Bull and Rockstar sales soar abroad, Thailand is still the leader in energy-drink consumption per-capita. And who can blame them with the prowess these products promise? Labels feature images of virile animals, guns, sheriff badges, and slogans like “Devotion. Courage. Sacrifice.” Another favorite is Calpico — a yogurt-flavored soda. Despite all thoughts to the contrary, it’s pretty tasty and refreshing.
Lighten up
Whether shopping for body wash or deodorant, the female Thai consumer is hard-pressed to find any products that don’t contain a whitening agent of some sort. She cannot even choose not to be whiter! Well-known brands market products like “White Perfect” by L’Oreal and “White Radiance” by Olay, whose names alone communicate an image of beauty that excludes much of Asia, if not, the world. In addition to the supermarket variety, there are innumerable illegal whitening potions that at best, do nothing, and at worst cause severe and sometimes irreparable skin discoloration.
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