“Don’t forget to use it often…so you’ll know how my lips feel.”
Thai commercials have really been making waves on social media these days with their surprisingly quality stories and poignant life lessons, which make us feel all the feels. They’re also impressive because they don’t just loudly describe the benefits of a product or service, but rather they tie it in to a deeper and more meaningful purpose, making you feel that maybe you really should buy it, so you, too, can learn to never judge a book by its cover, or can come to appreciate your parents more.
Now there’s a commercial promoting a Thai brand of lip balm that has us feeling very different feels, though. We don’t want to give it away too quickly, but fans of yaoi and boys’ love will really enjoy how the story unfolds.
The video starts out innocently enough: a high school boy confronts a schoolmate about toying with his sister’s feelings. “Did you make my sister cry?” he shouts, slamming open the classroom door. Furious, he takes a fistful of his school-mate’s shirt and pulls him up out of his seat.
But the tables turn as the schoolmate, ever-cool, begins to push the boy in the blazer back, until finally he gets his accuser against the locker with the kabe-don of fangirls’ (and fanboys’) dreams. “Do you want to know what I told your sister?” he asks coolly.
Clearly a little taken aback, but not terribly uncomfortable, the accuser listens to what his schoolmate tells him. “I told her to forget about me. I don’t think of you like that.” And then he leans in real close and says:
“I prefer your elder brother.”
And all the fangirls are clutching their doki-doki hearts!
He then proceeds to put lip balm on his thunderstruck schoolmate, after a cluck of disapproval about how he should take better care of himself:
After which he tucks the lip balm into the other boy’s pocket and strides out of the room, bag over one shoulder, with a grin. “Don’t forget to use it often…so you know how my lips feel.”
This leaves us all feeling like this group of girls who happened to be unsuspecting witnesses to this scene, which could be straight out of any of the 30-plus genres of boys’ love manga:
Swoon! Who wants to go to the Boys’ Love Cafe now?
Fangirling aside, besides the obvious humor, the commercial’s appeal also lies in a very clever play on words. We’re no expert in Thai, but Lazy Subber, who subtitled and uploaded the video, notes that the word for “arrogant people”, “phak dee”, also means “good mouth,” if taken literally, which the commercial uses to describe the arrogant but also soft-lipped student who caught his classmate so unawares.
Still, it’s hard to forget the near-kiss that’s now lingering in our minds. If you need some time to cool off, like we do, take a cold shower and then watch the collection of 2017’s best Japanese commercials. Strange transforming yakisoba men and people in demon suits singing about toilets should really do the trick.
Source: YouTube/Lazy Subber via Taxi
Top image: YouTube/Lazy Subber
Insert Images: YouTube/Lazy Subber