Angel doll craze: Marketing opportunities, mental health warnings
As human-like doll craze grips Thailand, businesses grab piece of the action, mental health warnings issued & national police chief warns of drug smuggling capabilities.
As human-like doll craze grips Thailand, businesses grab piece of the action, mental health warnings issued & national police chief warns of drug smuggling capabilities.
RELIGION, MARKETING & MENTAL HEALTH
Angel doll craze: Marketing opportunities, mental health warnings
25/01/2016
Online Reporters
An Angel Doll craze or fad has suddenly gripped Thailand.
Infant-like so-called Luk thep dolls have recently became very popular in Thailand and are believed by their owners to hold an angel's spirit inside of them.
Special restaurant promotion targeted at owners of Angel dolls.
MARKETING OPPORTUNITIES ABOUND
At 4,500 apiece, angel dolls are not cheap.
Businesses from airlines to restaurants to tutorial schools have jumped on the bandwagon and are offering special promotions that treat the human-like dolls as actual humans to gratify their owners.
Nakonchai Tour bus company and Thai Smile airways are even selling tickets for the dolls.
Groups of as many 30 restaurant-goers are reportedly bringing their dolls to dine with them at restaurants such as HOT POT and Neta Grill which has necessitated new set of restaurant policies to protect this newfound market.
Dolls under the height limit for small children can eat all they want for free and other customers in the restaurant must respect a doll owner's right to privacy and are barred from taking photos of them eating with their dolls.
Many doll owners already believe that if the dolls are treated like real children they will bring them good luck and fortune.
Fortune-tellers have asked monks to give the dolls a blessing (bless the dolls) in a special ritual and prominent monks have chosen to speak out against the dolls.
Meanwhile, government officials have allegedly speculated that the dolls might be made of rubber in the future to use up the rubber stocks that the government is planning to accumulate by buying rubber from rubber farmers at above market prices.
The new multi-functional wonder dolls truly seem to be all things to all people and might even be likened to an emotional Swiss Army knife.
MENTAL HEALTH WARNING
Mental health authorities have advised that owners of the dolls would be better advised to follow established religious doctrine than to rely on superstitious belief to avoid ill fortune.
Jedsada Chokdamrongsuk, director-general of the Mental Health Department, said on Monday that Thai people's tendency to believe in the supernatural, to seek something their mind could rely on, and to follow changing fashions had led to the popularity of such dolls.
As there were shops selling clothing and jewellery and offering beauty services for such dolls, Dr Jedsada said, he did not see adherents as being mentally ill.
But he felt people would be better advised adhering to religions, which had clear origins and were credible, and accept that blessings come from doing good deeds.
Dr Yongyud Wongpiromsarn, advisory head of the Mental Health department, said while belief could boost morale it should be based on the reality that personal success came from hard work, good planning and careful spending.
Angel dolls are for guys too.
CELEBRITY SOCIAL MEDIA SCAM?
Celebrities and social media have been used to influence people and believers in superstitions could be lured into paying out a lot of money for dolls, according to one expert who hopes the Child Angel doll fad will fade away soon.
DRUG SMUGGLING DEVICE?
National police chief Chakthip Chaijinda said on Monday said it was silly to allow people to carry these dolls aboard planes, because criminals could use them to smuggle drugs.
He ordered immigration police at airports and border checkpoints to carefully examine such Child Angel dolls.
Angel doll found with methamphetamine pills in Chiang Mai airport. (Photo by Cheewin Sattha)
A female Child Angel doll stuffed with 200 methamphetamine pills was found left in the parking of Chiang Mai International Airport on Monday evening.
Narcotics suppression police searched the area about 6pm yesterday after a tip-off that a quantity of drugs stuffed in a female child doll would be delivered to a customer there.
Pol Lt Col Kom Chetkhunthod, chief of the Chiang Mai narcotics suppression unit, said a black carrybag containing a doll was found left in a shelter at the airport's parking lot.
A cavity in the doll's chest contained 198 orange and two green methamphetamine pills.
It was the first known case of drugs being delivered in a doll, amid warnings that angel dolls might soon be used by air passengers to transport drugs.
However, the doll found yesterday allegedly looked more like an ordinary doll than an Angel Child doll.
http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/general/838564/child-angel-doll-owners-warned-to-be-wise
http://www.posttoday.com/analysis/report/412183
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