Transcript of the above video: 

So something in the last week, I didn't really chime in on it quite as timely as I might have otherwise done, I was keeping track of some other things. A lot going on actually here in terms of the news especially Immigration matters, stuff having to do with the situation involving changes to the possible regulations pertaining to Cannabis. We have discussed all of that in prior videos but the point of this video, everybody kept talking about this Apple ad and I'll get into that here in a moment. So at first I just kind of said "yeah whatever", and just kind of fobbed it off and then I went and watched the whole thing and it was interesting. 

That said, I initially thought of making this video after reading a recent article from Khao Sod English, that's khaosodenglish.com, the article is titled: New 'Apple' Ad criticized: Is it intentionally stereotyping Thailand? Quoting directly: "Netizens are displeased with Apple's new advertisement, "The Underdogs: OOO (Out of Office) Apple at Work". Despite being filmed in Thailand and featuring Thai elements such as food, clothing and public transport, many commenters feel it's discriminatory. The old-fashioned color tone, outdated appearance, and difficult travel depicted seem to portray Thailand as a third-world country." Fair, I get where people kind of, I watched it after reading that and yes they did kind of tint the filmmaking if you will a little bit to make it, I don't know. That said, I think they came by that honestly because even in my mind, there's a certain kind of Thailand that we sort of, like a lot of Americans especially they envision this place where it's something out of Air America or Platoon or something like where you walk into some bar and it is like CCR is just playing Fortunate Son on a loop in the background, the only other song being played is Give Me Some Lovin' by Spencer Davis Group and like there's that kind of that stereotype of what Southeast Asia and Thailand kind of look like. And again I don't think they meant that insultingly. I think it's just there is a kind of Western preconceived notion that that's what Thailand is like. 

Now here is where I thought it was interesting that Thais were a little upset in kind of with how Thailand was framed. I thought the Farang in it looked terrible, and the reason I thought that was because and this is just a fact and I don't know where this comes from, but where foreigners get their expectations on things, it baffles me. And they come to Thailand and foist their - in my opinion - quite unreasonable expectations and expectations as to making changes on the fly and just everybody has to go along with it. A lot of foreigners pull this kind of stuff. Again the sort of plot of the video or the advertisement is they are trying to please their client by producing some widget or something here at a factory in Thailand, so they have to travel all the way to Thailand and interact with the factory. Meanwhile, their client is just completely unreasonable of their expectations of, "I get to change it, I am going to keep changing it. If you don't do what I say, I am not going to buy from you, I am going to buy from somebody else," and your whole hustle collapses, whatever you want to call it. Meanwhile they sort of foist those expectations onto the Thais, who in the commercial, the Thais just sort of took it in stride and were very polite as Thais often are.

But if there's anything I took away from that commercial it's that farang expectations on Thailand are unreasonable to say the least sometimes. And I have seen this many, many times here in Thailand, and quite honestly if there's any teaching point to take away from that, it's not that it made Thailand look particularly bad - I don't actually think it did - I actually think it made Thailand look very welcoming and it made Thailand look very hard working and assiduous in being able to attend to the quite unreasonable demands of certain foreigners who come here and try to do business from time to time.