A loan shark and her boys arrive to confront a food vendor who is past due in his loan. Thais commonly call this an 'informal loan.'
However, they see no one, so the woman shouts out and kicks the LP gas canister before she and the boys walk away.
Once she leaves, the canister is revealed to be the vendor
in disguise--even holding the gas pipe in his mouth.
As he rubs his back and starts to get up, the scene cuts to the emblem of the Government Saving Bank and encourages people to get small loans from the bank--and not take out informal loans from individuals.
This commercial
is extremely amusing. It is fast-paced and characters
are extremely wry and deadpan. These screen captures do
not do it justice, but if one looks at the mock serious
expressions on the loan shark and her cronies at the top
of this page, one can get an idea of the tone.
It is also worth noting that the recent 'invention' of
micro credit is not an invention at all--people have always
needed and have always taken out these small loans, but
usually from other individuals.
Critics have
charged that this commercial and two others are actually
thinly veiled endorsement of the ruling TRT government:
Critics
riled over ad explosion - State budget used to trumpet
TRT policies - Bangkok Post, January 31, 2005
..."Since the beginning of the year, on Channel
9, you have frequently seen commercials for the Bank for
Agriculture and Agricultural Co-operatives (BAAC) and
the Government Savings Bank (GSB),'' said one critic who
asked not to be named.
The banks' TV commercials have been aired
exclusively on the network of recently privatised MCOT
Plc, in particular Channel 9. The advertisements emphasise
how many poor people have improved their standard of living
by participating in the debt-suspension programme or gaining
access to credit...