The 2010s: Panda Pandering
Other than celebrities and the Royal Family of Thailand, the most photographed person or animal this year has to be the first baby panda born in Thailand. Earlier this year, the first baby panda was born in Thailand and the media just went crazy over the little guy. On the nationmultimedia.com website (the website for the Nation newspaper), they have had a picture of the little guy on the website almost every day. Channel 3 still shows videos of the baby panda at least once a week. No creature, event, or person has been so overexposed as this baby panda has been in Thailand.
Corporations have, of course, have latched themselves to the baby panda bandwagon. They have done contests based on this animal. They have put his image on their packaging and their Tshirts. If this was the United States, he would have been on every news network and all sorts of memorabilia would be dedicated to this little panda such as key chains, T-shirts, lunch boxes, cereal boxes, etc. There would be a reality show showing the daily lives of the baby panda and his family. In the States, there would be no limits as to how they would exploit this little guy.
Why Thais have gone so crazy over this little creature is not known. It just might be that in a country that has been so full of bad news lately; it is just good to have some good news. Thais can say that they accomplished one thing and that is to have a panda born in captivity, a rare feat that even Americans have had trouble doing.