Mobilizing idol celebrity in queer affective advertising: exploring the impacts of ‘Boys Love’ media and fandom in Thailand

Abstract

ABSTRACTRecent years have witnessed an explosion in Thailand of ‘Boys Love (BL)’ media that focus on romantic relationships between men. This article explores one site through which BL media is significantly impacting Thai consumer culture: the world of advertising. In this article, we theorize the rise of BL advertising in Thailand as an instance of queer affective media engagement. Through a case study of an advertising campaign for the confectionary MinMin starring an imaginary idol celebrity couple named KristSingto, we reveal how Thai BL commercials consciously produce a queer affect known as fin, which is central to BL fandom. By evoking nostalgia for BL series via specific semiotic codes, Thai advertisers tie affective responses to staged homoeroticism and consumer culture. The idol celebrities within Thai BL advertising thus do more than simply endorse products, they also bolster consumption among primarily female fans by satisfying desires for (staged) queer romance.KEYWORDS: Boys LoveThailandqueer affectidol celebrityaffective advertising AcknowledgementsThomas Baudinette would like to thank Kwannie Krairit for Thai language assistance and to acknowledge colleagues at the Sydney Southeast Asia Centre for their support and guidance.Disclosure statementNo potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).Notes1 Thai naming conventions differ greatly to those of English. Every Thai person possesses a chue len or ‘nickname’ by which they are typically known by friends, family, and (in the case of celebrities) fans. This is followed by a formal personal name, and then a family name. We follow recent conventions in Thai media studies by referring to celebrities by their full names at first instance, preceded by their chue len, and then only by their chue len throughout the remainder of the article. See Baudinette (Citation2023, viii).2 The term ‘shipping’ derives from the English word ‘relationship’ and has been borrowed as a loanword into the Thai language to describe this fannish practice. In Anglophone fandom, the couples which fans produce through their shipping practices are known as ‘ships’.3 Singto ended his contract with GMMTV in 2022 during the writing of this article, whereas Krist remains signed to the company.4 While rao typically translates as ‘we’, it is also utilized in casual contexts among friends to mean ‘I’ (especially among those who wish to avoid gendered first person pronouns such as chan and phom that are conventionally utilized by women and men respectively). Within the context of this utterance, where Singto is clearly indicating that Krist does not belong within this space of fin, rao is best translated as I.5 The scene can be watched with English subtitles at https://youtu.be/8qlm2E0FKvw.6 An extended analysis of this scene and its deployment of BL tropes is regrettably beyond the scope of this article, but Kongpob’s threat to make Arthit his wife uses the derogatory phrase ‘tham mia’ (make [another man] your wife) that possesses a similar sentiment to the English phrase ‘make someone your bitch’. See Baudinette (Citation2023, 72).7 Examples include a backlash against Target Corporation’s LGBTQ+ Pride collection and against an endorsement campaign for Bud Light beer featuring trans celebrity and influencer Dylan Mulvaney, both occurring in the first half of 2023.