Red Bull Thailand's parent company distances from creator's grandson

Red Bull Thailand's parent company, TCP Group, has distanced itself from Vorayuth Yoovidhya, after netizens called to boycott the energy drink brand with the social media hashtags "#BoycottRedbull" and "BossRedbull" on Twitter. This comes as Yoovidhya, the grandson of the late Chaleo Yoovidhya who created the Thai energy drink Red Bull, had his charges from his hit-and-run case in 2012 dropped. According to Bangkok Post, Yoovidhya was previously accused of crashing his black Ferrari car into a policeman's motorcycle, killing him before fleeing the scene.

According to a press statement on its website, TCP Group clarified that Yoovidhya has never assumed any role in the management and daily operations of TCP Group, was never a shareholder, nor has he held any executive position within TCP Group. It is added that the case is a personal affair of Yoovidhya, and the company's executives, shareholders and employees of TCP Group are not involved across all aspects. Additionally, Bangkok Post also reported that the Office of the Attorney-General has since set up a seven-member panel to investigate the dropped charges from the 2012 case.

Earlier in July, Wunderman Thompson Thailand's ECD Thasorn Boonyanate released a short online film on his personal Facebook account, cordially thanking TCP Group for cancelling one of the company's biggest campaigns of the year due to the pandemic. It is then revealed in the video that the reason behind the creative's gratefulness was because TCP Group had decided to reshuffle their budgets instead, donating the first COVID-19 testing machine in Thailand and over 100,000 face masks to the medical staff.

Natha Boonprasit, director, corporate affairs and communications department, TCP Group said then: “The decision to cancel the project was not an easy one but at the end, we were guided by TCP Group’s resounding purpose to contribute to society. In the time of a humanitarian crisis like this, we should focus our efforts where they matter most."

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