Silly Question

[cosa]

Why when u look at all tv ads on thai tv, all the people have extremly white skin, i dont mind that they are all models thats the same in every country ..but the majorty of thai people dont have white skin..are they trying to fool us into believe they have? should they not represent the people and show a darker skin model?...we are in thailand not china or japan where white skin is the majorty...hmmmmmmmmm

[solent01]

Why when u look at all tv ads on thai tv, all the people have extremly white skin, i dont mind that they are all models thats the same in every country ..but the majorty of thai people dont have white skin..are they trying to fool us into believe they have? should they not represent the people and show a darker skin model?...we are in thailand not china or japan where white skin is the majorty...hmmmmmmmmm

Welcome to marketing

[peter991]

I have noticed that too, cosa. It seems to be an obsession with Thai people to try and have white skin. It seems the darker the skin colour the lower the class. There is an amazing number of skin whitening products on the market in Thailand - I even saw one which says it will whiten your armpits.

Compare that with tourists who visit Thailand to get a suntan and go brown. We think brown skin = healthy skin (until you get skin cancer!)

Amazing Thailand.

Peter

[think_too_mut]

My wife has brown skin and gets constantly asked if it is good money too look after a farang baby.

People think she is a nanny.

Our daughter is as white as it gets, whole neigborhood calls her "barbeee".

Not one time I have heard "good for you, she will do well on TV", implying she would be making money for us.

[monty]

Actually a big part of the actors/actresses/models are Look Khrueng.

Either the mother or the father are foreigner, resulting in the lighter so desired skin tone!

At one time Miss Thailand was somebody who could hardly speak Thai. She was raised/living abroad and only came to Thailand on holidays

[Sing_Sling]

It is not only the case in Japan or China that being 'white' is seen as healthy, wealthy and ummm mixed? It is the same in the Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia etc . . .

The idea, of course, is to distance yourself as far as possible from those little brown people that till the land.

Also, you might notice that the advent of multi-national marketing has brought with it faces that 'speak' to more than one location - - - many of the people you see on ads are not local.

[naka]

Why when u look at all tv ads on thai tv, all the people have extremly white skin, i dont mind that they are all models thats the same in every country ..but the majorty of thai people dont have white skin..are they trying to fool us into believe they have? should they not represent the people and show a darker skin model?...we are in thailand not china or japan where white skin is the majorty...hmmmmmmmmm

No they are not trying to fool us.

It has nothing to do with 'us'.

It is simply a Thai preference.

Naka.

[gummy]

If it worries you try adjusting the colour and contrast on you your, that way they could all have red skin

[PhilHarries]

I find the marketting of these skin whitening products to be quite offensive. I remember one a few years back by Pond showing a series of pics of a girl with her skin getting paler and paler. She started out with a frown and as she got whiter her smile broadened.

Can you imagine running an advertisement like that for black or asian people in the US, UK or Europe? Hel_l your factory would be ashes within 24 hours.

[DrFisher]

My wife explained to me the "white thing" is mainly a fashion statement as well as a social or status thing. The whiter your skin is the better because it means you are not common labor that works in the hot sun. Thailand is not the only country that has this hang up, I lived in Colombia for 2 years and the same goes there but because being more white in Colombia means you are closer to pure Spanish blood not mixed with the indigenous or slave trade population.

[solent01]

I find the marketting of these skin whitening products to be quite offensive. I remember one a few years back by Pond showing a series of pics of a girl with her skin getting paler and paler. She started out with a frown and as she got whiter her smile broadened.

Can you imagine running an advertisement like that for black or asian people in the US, UK or Europe? Hel_l your factory would be ashes within 24 hours.

I wanted to post a link (upload) Bill Hicks regarding this bull, sell it to the people <deleted>, but after thinking about it, it must be copyright so thought better of it, don't need G and the mods coming down on me, but this is all about marketing, sell it where you can, sucks ha.

[canuckamuck]

In most of Asia white skin is favored as being more desirable, brown skin is for those who have to labor in the sun, It’s a bit snobbish, but most fashion ideas are. This is simply a cultural ideal. Westerners think they look better brown because for us white is sickly looking. It’s just a matter of taste; the grass is always greener on the other side ya know.

Personally I think there isn't much more disgusting than a herd of fat farangs in thongs sprawled out on the beach like so many walrusses trying to get a little sun. But that is only a statement of my taste.

[mrt273nva]

it is the same thing in the US though. The US is full of fat people yet on television all you see are skinny people. Personally I prefer to see skinny people dancing around in their bikini's rather than the giants that actually make up the majority in the US. In Thailand the majority are skinny already so they need something else that sets superficial beauty apart from the majority (skin color).

Edited March 30, 2007 by mrt273nva

[solent01]

No, this is all about the cooperates cashing in on the Thai outlook, most Thais hate the sun (so do I) and dislike having dark skin, Nivia for one promoting a whiting cream..........

[h90]

Why when u look at all tv ads on thai tv, all the people have extremly white skin, i dont mind that they are all models thats the same in every country ..but the majorty of thai people dont have white skin..are they trying to fool us into believe they have? should they not represent the people and show a darker skin model?...we are in thailand not china or japan where white skin is the majorty...hmmmmmmmmm

Well at home, why in the farang TV they are all pretty and slim, while the majorty of us Farangs are fat and look like pigs?

Customer gets what he want to see.

[h90]

Why when u look at all tv ads on thai tv, all the people have extremly white skin, i dont mind that they are all models thats the same in every country ..but the majorty of thai people dont have white skin..are they trying to fool us into believe they have? should they not represent the people and show a darker skin model?...we are in thailand not china or japan where white skin is the majorty...hmmmmmmmmm

Well at home, why in the farang TV they are all pretty and slim, while the majorty of us Farangs are fat and look like pigs?

Customer gets what he want to see.

[solent01]

I'm going to leave this one to you folks, I don't watch TV, its all bull, sell it every where you can, thats all TV is about, good luck.

[ozymandious]

I agree with all the above labor in the sun, upper social eschelon and all connotations.

It's also mostly a matter of the grass being greener on the other side, Thai want to be fair, farang want to be tan.

While we're on the subject of cultural cross roads questions? My friend new to Thailand asked a question that had me rolling in stitches.

she asked "what's up with the long pinkey nail? do they do drugs, is it their 'coke' finger?"

I laughed hard and then explained that it's not for drugs, and she watches too many movies, but a sign that they don't do manual labor.

Apparent it also makes a great digging for nose gold tool as aptly demonstrated by some of the taxi drivers I've had. :D

[A_Traveller]

The white skin point is 'not tilling the land' as others have said plus some rather interesting social and even religious perspectives. However, we should remember that the suntan is to a large degree a recent fashion statement, popularised by Coco Chanel, along with the little black dress. After all prior to that women could die of lead poisoning from using white lead to give a pale complexion in the French Court.

Since there is a move in China for travellers to start having a suntan, I guess that here will follow, as always, the Chinese lead.

The other point though is not just the skin colour, but that many of the actors don't look Thai {because they are not} and so the goal for acceptable 'beauty' is realistically unobtainable. {Different nose, eyelids, body type, let alone skin tone}.

In Malaysia recently there was a call for more ethnic Malays to been seen on television, so it's not just here.

Regards

[qwertz]

There's an African preparation on sale here that claims to beach black skin if used regularly. There's even a commercial TV spot for it, complete with very light skinned Afro models.

[Mid]

this whole topic is one of the sadder things here .................................

these advertisers wouldn't have the ball's to try their spin in western countries due to the advanced laws ,

lower than a snakes belly the lot of 'em

[Jimmy in Bangkok]

this whole topic is one of the sadder things here .................................

these advertisers wouldn't have the ball's to try their spin in western countries due to the advanced laws ,

lower than a snakes belly the lot of 'em

I agree wholeheartedly Mid. I was actually commenting to my wife the other day about one of the advertisements on at the moment. It has 2 young women having some sort of dance off (?) in a courtyard and then someone makes the comment regarding the skin colour of one of the girls and everything stops. The lady in question then looks at her "brown" skin and looks incredibly embarrassed whilst the other "whiter" girl cheers with the rest of the crowd. It made me furious! I could imagine having that on television in Australia....not! I have tried to show my wife the irony of "brown/tanned people trying to be white and "white/non-tanned" people trying to be brown. If it wasn't so sad it would be quite funny.

Cheers

[Jet Gorgon]

Been in Asia 20 years. White skin is a sign of high class society. Shows these folks never laboured in the fields like peasants. Ever notice the women labourers on construction sites? All covered up from eyebrows to toes to avoid the effects of the sun, even if its 35 degrees.

[Nebukanezar]

It's a combination of many foolish and greedy reasons. The beautiful chocolate skin bad thing comes from that labor outside / have money stay inside classisim thing sure. However the continual perpetration of this kind of unrealistic self hate bigotry comes from the manufactures of the chemical bleaching shit that they sell in almost every store in Thailand. The whitening cream market is HUGE here, and with out laws to regulate adverting they commonly use their billions of baht to make unrealistically (for real Thais) white skin fashionable.... this translates into commercials with ghostly pale women, fashion shows sponcered by the cream manufactures that only allow luk krungs or women with a bunch of white makeup on, even the Miss Thailand pageant is corrupted by this evil....I mean when was the last time you saw a Miss America that cant speak English...really.

But all this being said their is a change coming slow but coming none the less. Check out good ol'e Dove, you know Dove soap? They have something called The Campaign for Real Beauty http://www.campaignforrealbeauty.ph/suppor...ection=campaign check out the link they did a GREAT study on the twisted media and what real Thais and other Asian women think about what is beautiful.

3 cheers for Dove thats practically the most responsible advertising I have ever seen from a company.

All that being said.... My fiance' (Thai of course) LOVES to Tan , we hang out at the pool together and I rub her down with the tanning lotion. I get a kick out of how she loves her lil tanning lines.

Edited March 30, 2007 by Nebukanezar

[Mid]

Nebukanezar

thanxs for the link , breath of fresh air there ,

however until Hollywood changes ..........................

[Jimmy in Bangkok]

Nebukanezar,

Cheers for that bit of info. It's nice to see someone is doing something about this rubbish but as Mid has said there's still a log way to go. A start has to be somewhere though so a give Dove a big thumbs up. I wouldn't have thought I'd see a beauty based company look into this at all. A pleasant change!

Cheers

Jimmy

[mutleyg]

Nebukanezar

Do you really think Unilever the manufacturer of Dove give a toss about real beauty or skin colour? If so maybe Tesco are going to start supporting local market traders throughout the world!!!

I agree the whole skin whitening thing makes me a little uncomfortable but I really cannot believe a company of this size would give a ###### about anything other than profit. Yes they may show an interest in the issue but only because it could open up a new market.

[qwertz]

Been in Asia 20 years. White skin is a sign of high class society. Shows these folks never laboured in the fields like peasants. Ever notice the women labourers on construction sites? All covered up from eyebrows to toes to avoid the effects of the sun, even if its 35 degrees.

They may also be aware of the danger of skin cancer, like the field workers in S. Europe.

[Mid]

Been in Asia 20 years. White skin is a sign of high class society. Shows these folks never laboured in the fields like peasants. Ever notice the women labourers on construction sites? All covered up from eyebrows to toes to avoid the effects of the sun, even if its 35 degrees.

They may also be aware of the danger of skin cancer, like the field workers in S. Europe.

afraid not , Jet's got it

and

it goes back to long before we knew about skin cancer ......................

[LaoPo]

It's a combination of many foolish and greedy reasons.

But all this being said their is a change coming slow but coming none the less. Check out good ol'e Dove, you know Dove soap? They have something called The Campaign for Real Beauty http://www.campaignforrealbeauty.ph/suppor...ection=campaign

check out the link they did a GREAT study on the twisted media and what real Thais and other Asian women think about what is beautiful.

3 cheers for Dove thats practically the most responsible advertising I have ever seen from a company.

"A landmark study of 2,100 women in 10 countries in Asia reveals deep divides between countries when it comes to women's self-esteem, body image and sense of beauty. The study, sponsored by Dove, is called “The Real Truth About Asian Beauty: Asian Women's Attitudes Toward Self-Esteem, Body Image, and Media Portrayal.” "

I wouldn't call a study of a mere 2,100 women in 10 countries -with more than 1,5 Billion people- a Landmark study...... but of course Mr. Dove does....

In my eyes, this 'study' only benefits Dove (just a little) to have more insight in the different countries in Asia amongst women and thus how it's best to penetrate in local markets and HOW to accomplish MORE sales -nothing wrong with that though-

That's all.

Sorry Mr. Nebukanezar but Mr. Dove is fooling you (and others) by claiming:

"The Real Truth About Asian Beauty"..... because it's bull........

Skin Whitening

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skin_whitening

History of Cosmetics

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_cosmetics

LaoPo