Thai MLM hip hop song draws protest, gets renamed
On September 30th Thai hip hop trio Natee “Oui” Eakwichit released an MLM diss track.
Titled “Puan Hai Pror Kai Trong”, which translates to “Losing Friends Because Of Direct Sales”,
the song’s sarcastic lyrics talk about a jobless man who was suggested by friends to work as a network marketer if he wanted to get rich quickly and retire before 30 years old.
But the man later found all his friends distanced themselves from him as they apparently did not want to listen to his sales pitch or get involved with the network marketing business.
The man finally quit his job.
Sound familiar?
Protests began shortly after the song’s release, with ‘many people in the (MLM industry‘ calling for the song’s ban on social media.
Oui also received support, mostly from people who
said it truly reflected their bad experience when getting a surprise call from a long-lost friend-turned-network marketer and their supposed reunion turned out to serve the sales purpose instead.
Politician Kritanong Suwannawon spearheaded protests against the song.
Ms Kritanong said the lyrics were more suited to an illegal pyramid scheme or money game rather than network marketing.
The song insulted many people’s profession while generalising them as being bad and unwanted persons.
Oui originally responded by stating that “those in the network marketing business … should not be upset if they were not the bad type like the one mentioned in his song.”
As a compromise Oui changed the song’s title to “Puan Hai Pror Kai Orm”, which translates to “Losing Friends Because Of Indirect Sales”.
He also released copyright claims on any MLM company that wished to use the song and claimed the song “would benefit those who sell honestly.”
Kritanong accepted the compromise and in a thank you note to the artist ‘said she would buy a ticket to his concert.’
While I’m not too sure about the hip hop label, Oiu’s song is certainly catchy enough.
Even if you don’t speak Thai, the video gives you the general gist of the song.
🙂 Reminded me of a russian rap song “Why the f*** i joined MMM?”
which was somehow popular in 2012 after the collapse of MMM-2011
nolink://youtu.be/1SvEZO-5Huc
even traffic monsoon had a song – ‘traffic monsoon, we are here to stay’.
pretty catchy song even though traffic monsoon got blown away!
youtube.com/watch?v=Jgr673tr_bA
Reminds me of that video that made fun of vemma recruiting promising fast riches yet no one joined.
Ah fun times