Don't! Buy! Thai!

Campaign to boycott Thai goods

Don't! Buy! Thai! was a campaign initiated in the early 1990s by child welfare advocate and author Andrew Vachss to boycott goods and services produced in Thailand until its government introduced formal and practical reforms to significantly curtail the prostitution of children.

The organization of Don't! Buy! Thai! was willfully informal, with promoters refusing donations.

The campaign had great difficulty attracting attention from television, radio, and print media, so discussion was conducted largely on the Internet. Online, it came under vociferous attack by Sean Parlaman, who presented himself as a crusader against the prostitution of children. Parlaman variously accused the Don't! Buy! Thai! campaigners of being fundamentalist Christians, right-wing bigots, and pedophiles.

In 2000, frustrated by the lack of traction and noting that the prostitution of children to sex tourists had become less concentrated in Thailand, Vachss and most of those involved abandoned the boycott.

References

de Lint, Charles; “Books to Look for”, The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, v 89 #4 (October/November 1995).
Herbert, Bob; “In America; Kids for Sale”, New York Times, 22 January 1996.
Bishop, Ryan, and Lillian S. Robinson; “Batman: The Ultimate Evil”, the Nation, 29 January 1996.
van Esterik, Penny; Materializing Thailand (2000), Berg ISBN 1-85973-311-5.