THURSDAY, March 28, 2024
nationthailand

As we age, we start to look like our pops

As we age, we start to look like our pops

EVEN IF YOU'RE no fan of Coca-Cola, you have to admire its latest marketing gimmick.


Are you really going to refuse a can of Coke if it has a picture of your mum on it, or your grandchild – or you?
The global “Share a Coke” campaign has arrived in Thailand with familiar faces and feel-good messages being printed on its share of 250 million cans and plastic bottles. It’s been a success in Brazil, Australia, Britain, Italy, France, Austria, Germany, Greece and Israel, and now Thailand is among first Asian nations to join in.
Enthusiasm is expected of the same order that sold five million cans here during the “Share a Coke with Mum” campaign in August. The personalised containers will begin appearing by the end of this year, though we’re already seeing glimpses on the social media – more of that trusty free advertising.
If your name is pretty common, you could soon see it on Cokes everywhere, and if you’ve nickname is frightfully ordinary – May, Ploy, Nan, Ice, Bank, Mild, Nam, Fah, New, Ball or Beer – you can bank on seeing it.
And then, if it works for Coke, why not coffee, drinking water, instant noodles, milk or yoghurt?

Congrat – you what?
TV personality Panisara “Opal” Phimpru and Smith “Oak” Arayasakul, the singing dermatologist, have set their wedding date for March 23, with the reception on April 6. Opal has been more reticent with the press than usual because she’s saving it all up for their appearance together this Sunday on “Tee Nee Mor Chit”. It’s the same Channel 7 show where Opal first hinted about the relationship, back in January 2012.
Soopsip had a sneak peek at the pre-taped interview and found Opal revealing that there were two main reactions to the wedding announcement: “I don’t deserve him” and “He’s gay”. Luckily, Oak takes no notice of gossip. We’re quite sure he’s not even reading this.
“I’m not keen about paying any attention to those who talk behind my back,” he says. “I think I’m used to it all.” Even people thinking he’s gay? “I don’t get serious about it – it’s no big deal. It doesn’t make any sense for a man to have to spend his life defending himself, saying he’s not gay.” Oak’s content sharing his world with someone who understands him as they grow old together. That would be Opal.
She says she doesn’t want to keep proclaiming that Oak’s not gay because then everyone will start proclaiming louder that she’s so in love that she’s blind to his flamboyant homosexuality. “I know him well, as I do the other people around him. Those who have been called his gay partners – I know them all,” she says. “I think the gossip is so strong that people tend to buy it. But I’m the one who’s had gay friends all my life and I can spot one when I see one.”
Huh. Well, at least Oak’s the type who couldn’t care less. “P’ Oak says that even we’re married and have kids, people will keep thinking like that if they want to. We have no obligation to prove anything to anyone. We have our happiness.”
Catch some of that happiness this Sunday, along with a glimpse of their future love nest!

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