Army boycotts Lazada over controversial ad

This picture was posted on an army spokesman's Facebook account on Monday.
This picture was posted on an army spokesman's Facebook account on Monday.

The army chief has ordered all units and organisations under his command to stop buying products via the Lazada online platform, in protest against a controversial video promotion.

Army chief Gen Narongphan Jitkaewtae issued the order to  army units, agencies and businesses nationwide on Monday. It prohibits them from ordering products via Lazada.

The army chief also banned Lazada vehicles from entering army areas.

The content of the Lazada promotion offended the royal institution and seriously hurt the feelings of Thai people, according to the spokeswoman.

The order is a response to an online advertisement by transgender influencer Aniwat Prathumthin, better known as Nara Crepe Katoey.

Nara and another woman appeared in an online commercial for e-commerce platform Lazada which was criticised as mocking the disabled.

Intersect Design Factory, a media agency, was hired to coordinate the production of videos to promote the ad.

The video features Nara and a wheelchair-bound woman having fun and joking with each other. It drew criticism from many netizens, some of whom believed the outfit worn by the disabled person was an oblique reference to the royal family.

Both Intersect and Lazada later issued an apology and removed the promotion.

Vocabulary

  • apology: an act of saying sorry - คำขอโทษ
  • controversial: causing disagreement or disapproval - ความไม่ลงรอยกัน
  • criticism: comments that show that you think something is wrong or bad - การวิจารณ์
  • disabled: having a condition, especially a physical one, that limits your activities in some way - พิการ
  • influencer (noun): a person who influencers, i.e., a person who has the power to make somebody/something behave in a particular way - คนที่มีอิทธิพล
  • institution: an important tradition or system upon which society is based - สถาบัน
  • mocking: when you laugh at someone or something in an unkind way - หัวเราะเยาะ, เย้ยหยัน
  • netizens (noun): people who use the Internet a lot - พลเมืองเครือข่ายคอมพิวเตอร์
  • obliquely: not expressed or done in a direct way - อย่างอ้อมๆ, อย่างไม่ตรง
  • prohibit: to not allow; to ban - ห้าม
  • promotion: activities done in order to increase the attendance at an event or sales of a product or service - การส่งเสริม
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