Wristband Hive in Thailand

It's getting out of hand... (also pun intended ;-P )

Now many teens in Thailand are crazy over wristbands..apparently for no particular reason than that it's a new “fashion” that they have to follow.

Yes, it's a common thing to happen in a collective society as Thailand (or is it just Bangkok). Some might even say that it's bound to happen; and it's just a matter of time before people start getting crazy about some new things again. But, still, I couldn't get used to it yet.

Originally, these wristbands were made as part of one fund-raising campaign. But later on other charity organizations see that it's a Good Thing(tm), so they followed suit. Now there are tons of them out there, coming with different sizes and colors.

Truth be told, I've heard about it for a while on TV. I believed the first campaign that came up with this colorful plastic wristband was Lance Armstrong Foundation, which dedicates its effort on cancer research. The original price of each wristband was $1. I first heard about the price when I glanced over the Oprah TV show a while back. But now, when I checked the price again, the minimum price currently starts at $10.

Some other notable campaigns are Nike's “STAND UP SPEAK UP”, and the one from The Breast Cancer Site.

Nothing against them, really: It's a smart move. It easily created (brand) awareness among comsumers (after all, people's wrists usually are visible to the public). It also effectively conveys the message through its unique color and brief text.

The only thing I'm against is the attitude of those who wear them just for fashion, and those who sells them just for the sake of getting profit.

Many teens see them as must-have fashion accessories, so there're people who will take advantage of this. At the moment many stores at Siam Square are selling these bands at ridiculously high prices. Some goes as high as 1,000 baht for Nike one. And, as anyone can guess, additional profit made on these bands probably won't be donated toward their respective foundations. In fact, I'm not even sure if any of those I saw in stores are fake or not. But the point is, it's kind of disappointing to see this kind of thing.

Searching through a bit more, though, I realized that Thailand is not alone in this issue. Even in the US, these bands were resold on eBay. It's just that, in the US, the situation happened late last year. Thailand just happen to caught up in the very same problem this year.

Obviously, many people over there saw it disturbing as well.

Can I change anything? Probably not. The only thing that I can do is watching the hive dies down. Eventually, teenagers will pick up new things to go crazy about.

I wanna change it, but it's just getting out of hand...


PS. More info over here.