Bangkok – The Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) states that its first “unbranding” viral video has become a marketing success, which has attracted over one million views within three days after it was released via YouTube on 18 November.

Mr. Thawatchai Arunyik, the Governor of TAT said, “There’s been much hype and speculation following the release of the ‘I Hate Thailand’ video, which has been produced based on a research that an ‘unbranding’ advertisement would tend to receive more interest than a conventional branding commercial. The intention of this video is solely to depict the renowned Thai hospitality, demonstrating that Thais are ready to be a good host and offer a helping hand to tourists who need help.”

The ‘I Hate Thailand’ video is a romantic-comedy short film about a tourist named ‘James’ who planned to visit Thailand for a week. James later lost his bag along with his valuable belongings. Then the script saw James got rescued by a local girl and later recovered his processions through the help of other villagers. The film concluded with James saying that he was wrong when he said he hated Thailand when he did not know the country well enough. He ended up staying two years in Thailand.

Click to watch the video: “I Hate Thailand”.

As of 24 November, the video has attracted nearly 1.3 million views and over 19,000 likes on YouTube, and has become a popular sensation through social media sharing.

Mr. Thawatchai said, “This video is intended for both domestic and international tourists. For the domestic market, the intention is to remind and educate the Thai people to always be a good host and not to take advantage of tourists, but to offer help to tourists when they need it. For the international market, we would like to convey that beyond the beauty of the Thai beaches – one of the main tourist attractions – Thai people are very kind and ready to be a good host to all tourists.”