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The creepiest tourism ad you've seen since 'Where the bloody hell are you?'

The message of this tourism video? It’s either ‘see Thailand’ or ‘stay away from stalkers’. We’re not sure which.

Tourism Thailand’s latest advertisement campaign was created as an ode to the country’s beautiful landscape, but has been labelled a creepy “stalker” video instead.

It was meant to be a campaign to lure holidaymakers to Thailand’s idealistic beaches and gorgeous landscapes but instead it’s been called a ‘creepy stalker’ video as the film follows a young man who goes to Thailand to track down his internet obsession.

You can watch it, here:

In case you have other things to do with seven minutes, here’s what happens:

In the film – called Love En Route – an American man goes to Thailand to mend a broken heart. He doesn’t use guidebooks to find his way around but instead an Instagram account created by a young Thai woman.

Read more:Student charged with rape told police he was just re-enacting “Fifty Shades of Grey.”

All is fine until he declares that he wants to find her because “It would be nice for us to meet and maybe become friends.”

He tracks her down eventually, but she resists him. She seems quite uncomfortable and it makes for very awkward viewing.

But after a couple of comments on her Instagram account and a second attempt in person, he convinces her to come travelling with him.

Thailand Tourism video
A clip from the film ‘Love En Route’. Image via Thailand Tourism.
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The film ends with an awkward airport goodbye where the man declares his feelings for the woman but she continues to resist him. That is until she posts a picture of the two of them on her account. I guess indicating he’d won her over.

Read more:Unforgivable things have been done to these women. But their words are unexpectedly beautiful.

Jennifer Perry, CEO of the Digital-Trust abuse charity said the film reflected patterned behaviour she has witnessed in her own line of work.

“[The man in the video] is trying to find someone to love online but in order to do that he is tracking an individual down. A lot of times it might turn out just fine, but in the world I deal with there are a lot more abusive scary individuals out there than you would think,” she told The Independent. 

What do you think, is the video creepy or a cute love story?

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