As far as marketing campaigns go, there have been some pretty dodgy ones in the past. Remember that time Nivea tried to promote its no-stain deodorant with the (inadvertently) racist slogan: "white is purity"? Or when protein world basically body-shamed the whole planet when they implied that only super skinny people had "beach bodies" that were acceptable for public display?
Or when
made it look like all of the world's most serious issues could be solved by handing a cop a can of Pepsi?
We've seen it happen time and time again; but, somehow, it's never surprising when another company makes the same sorts of mistakes.
Most recently, coffee shop owner
Prasong Sukkorn has been threatened with a lengthy jail sentence after promoting his cafe, Coffee on the Day, using a nude model.
Arisa Suwannawon, a 22-year-old model from Thailand, stripped down to her birthday suit and donned an apron in order to advertise the cafe, which had only opened recently. Sukkorn then took pictures of her serving coffee and recorded a short video of her promoting the establishment, in which she looks down at her breasts and makes a not-so-subtle innuendo about the place using "plenty of milk" in their drinks.
And, while objectifying women isn't a crime (unfortunately), distributing "obscene" material
is
. So, when law enforcement got word that Sukkorn had used nearly-nude images of Suwannawon in his marketing campaign, they charged him.
As a result of his shallow attempt to get a few more customers, the business owner is now facing between three and five years in jail, or a fine of 100,000 Thai Baht
(just over $3,000).
However, Sukkorn insists that "There was no intention to be sexual or offensive. I posted the pictures online just as a way of marketing the business. I have apologized for this."
Police commander Thanachai Usakit, who is investigating the case, said he believed that the owner did not know better, but said that he had still committed a crime. "He didn’t realize it would break the law, because the model in the photos wasn’t fully naked," he said. "The pictures were removed but the original offense is still present. We must investigate that and proceed with the law."
Up until this weekend, the images had been on Facebook, and had been shared nearly 9,000 times just five hours.
Understandably, the explicit nature of the post attracted a lot of attention and criticism - particularly from women who said that it devalued female baristas, and people who were concerned about the image that Thailand has to tourists.
"Do you have to do as much as this to promote your shop? So, do you want to open a coffee shop or a brothel?" asked one user.
"This kind of promotion prompted female baristas like me to be viewed negatively," said another. “Now, foreigners perceive Thailand as brothels. Please have understanding for working people in the profession [when] you use this kind of bad promotion. Please understand how they will be perceived."
At the time of writing, there has been no confirmation as to whether Sukkorn has paid the fine, and the original Facebook post has obviously been removed.
