ABSTRACT
The case study is the Tourism Authority of Thailand's 'Amazing Thailand' campaign, which first ran in 1998 and was subsequently extended for a number of seasons. With regard to Amazing Thailand, the ways in which the essentially Thai is depicted are not as objective as they seem, but are categories of potential consumer experiences, experiences available in conjunction with the particular series of commodity exchanges which makes tourism possible. This ontology renders being as that which is commercially useful: Thailand is made to exist as a finite set of resources for consumption, and nothing politically contrary to this. The Amazing Thailand campaign was essentially a branding exercise. It was organized quickly and was designed to supplement rather than to replace existing promotional materials. The necessary aporia which arises from the positioning of the subject as the witness of the timeless autochthonous nature of Thailand, but in actuality is involved in contemporary transnational socio-economic relations, is evident in the discourse.
