CASBAA

Thailand

The main rules and guidelines as of late 2009 maintain that, in the interests of consumers and society as a whole, the following should play no part in any commercials:

• Statements which are false or exaggerated
• Statements which will cause misunderstanding in the essential elements concerning goods or services, notwithstanding it is based on or refers to any technical report, statistics or anything which is false or exaggerated
• Statements which directly or indirectly encourage the commission of an unlawful or immoral act, or which adversely affects the national culture
• Statements which will cause disunity or adversely affect the unity among the public
• Other statements as prescribed in the Ministerial Regulation (currently, there is no Ministerial Regulation issued on this matter)
  
  

Care should be taken not to offend against or insult the King or the heads of any other states. Advertising should not intentionally insult the nation, the government and the officials of any state or group of people.

There should be no insult or attempt to defame any religion or respect to a sacred person, place or thing. No offence shall be made against public order or the national unity, or affect international relationships.

Comparative advertising is not allowed and further cautions include:

• Offence against good moral, culture and custom of the nation
• Any political expression which would harm the national security
• Sexual incitement or obscenity
• Acts of cruelty, uncivilized behaviour or indecency to the audience
• Convey an illusive, deceptive or untrue story which may deceive people, especially children and youth
• Allusion to the abnormal behaviour of criminals that may incite crime
  
  

Overseas commercials are acceptable; however, all voice-overs and all words on screen must be in Thai. Songs, however, can be in any language.

Advertising minutes per hour	Limited to 6 per hour per channel
Advertising revenue restrictions	None
Tobacco	Tobacco is prohibited in advertising if any linkage is made between the brand name and the product. Advertisements broadcast from abroad may have these rules waived but please check with the authorities concerned.
Alcohol	Under the Rules on Alcoholic Advertising the advertising of the Logo must convey a useful message promoting social values, worthwhile knowledge or cultural enhancement.
Pharmaceutical	Advertising of food, medicine and all types of medical equipment must receive permission from the Food and Drug Administration.
Contraception	Restrictions regarding time of airing (late evening only) apply.
Medical	Advertising of food, medicine and all types of medical equipment must receive permission from the Food and Drug Administration.
Food and Beverage	Advertising of food, medicine and all types of medical equipment must receive permission from the Food and Drug Administration.
Financial	None mentioned.
Children	Advertising directed at or featuring children must conform to Thai culture and be viewed / approved by the Broadcasting Directing Board.
Claims	No restrictions but all claims must be supported. Defer to the Civil and Commercial Code and the Unsafe Product Liability Act B.E. 2551 (A.D. 2008).
Public Service	No quota but channels must comply with government requests in the event of a disaster or emergency.
Government Levy	Section 22 of the Broadcasting and Television Business Operation Act states that the Commission requires licensees to submit an annual fee which will not exceed 2% of the income before deduction of expenses from both direct and indirect advertisements and other income relating to the operation of the permitted Broadcasting Business and Television Business.

Please be informed that the Thailand Cabinet issued the Ministerial Regulations on Rules and Conditions to Exhibit Logo for Advertising or Publicizing Alcoholic Products B.E. 2553 (A.D. 2010) (“Rules on Alcoholic Advertising”) with effect on and from 31 March 2010.

The Rules on Alcoholic Advertising allows logo of alcoholic beverages or logo of the company producing alcoholic beverages, i.e. corporate and manufacturer's logos, (collectively “Logo”) to appear in television, print media or other media. The Rules on Alcoholic Advertising conforms to the Alcohol Beverages Control Act 2008, which prohibits the showing of an alcoholic product's image or packaging in any advertisement.

Under the Rules on Alcoholic Advertising the advertising of the Logo must convey a useful message promoting social values, worthwhile knowledge or cultural enhancement. The Logo shall be in conformity with following requirements:

(1) It must not be the image of the alcoholic beverages or of its packaging or any part thereof;
(2) It must not contain any information about expressing useful effect, benefit or quality of the alcoholic beverages;
(3) It must not contain any information about directly or indirectly persuading people to drink alcoholic beverages; and
(4) It must not appear in any form, nature or image that can be understood that it is the image of the alcoholic beverages or of its packaging.

The advertising of the Logo shall comply with rules separated by media by which such advertising is to be made as follows:

(1) For media on television, projector, movie, video, presentation of picture by electronic device or otherwise media of same nature, size of the Logo must not exceed five (5) per cent of the total advertising space. The showing of the Logo must not continue for more than five (5) per cent of the total commercial time but not exceed a maximum of two (2) seconds. The Logo can only be advertised from 10.00 pm – 5.00 am and only at the end of the advertising.

(2) For print media, size of the Logo must not exceed five (5) per cent of the total advertising space. The Logo cannot appear on front and back pages, centre folds or wrapping of print media.

(3) For any media other than the media in (1) and (2) above, size of the Logo must not exceed three (3) per cent of the total advertising space in such other media.

It is required that the warning message about alcoholic consumption shall be shown every time and all time when the Logo is advertised in all media. Format of such warning message shall be in accordance with the announcement that the alcohol controlling committee will stipulate. Any person violating the Rules on Alcoholic Adverting will be liable to imprisonment of not exceeding one (1) year or fine of not exceeding Baht 500,000 or both. In addition the violator will also be liable to fine of not exceeding Baht 50,000 per day throughout the period of violation or until the violator has legally complied. For reference only