Drink brand Red Bull issues an apology for desecrating Borobudur by filming an unauthorised commercial at the sacred site.
Red Bull apologizes to Indonesia over offensive ad
AFP, via Rappler, 30 June 2016
Red Bull has publicly apologized for shooting a commercial in which an athlete performed acrobatic stunts across one of Indonesia’s ancient holy temples, an official said Thursday, June 30.
The energy drink manufacturer issued an apology in national newspapers admitting it shot the video at the 9th-century Borobudur temple “without permission from the appropriate authorities”.
The video – in which a famous “free running” athlete is shown jumping between the temple’s stone stupas – triggered outrage in Indonesia, where Borobudur is a revered Buddhist site and national icon.
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That is hardly the worst connection of Red Bull’s arrogance in SE Asia. Four years ago, the 17 year-old grandson son of Red Bull’s Thai founder drove his million-dollar Ferrari into a Bangkok policeman at terrific speed, then dragged his body several hundred meters. This recent news account is damning, both to this rotten individual himself, and the Thai system of so-called justice.
FOLLOWING public outcry over high-profile incidences of reckless driving by wealthy individuals, authorities in Thailand have set up a committee to probe the police officers who handled a 2012 case involving the heir of a multi-billion dollar energy drink empire which left a traffic policeman dead.
Acting commissioner of metropolitan police, Pol Lt-Gen Sanit Mahathavorn, said the panel was investigating the officers from the Thong Lor station for not charging the Red Bull energy drink heir Vorayudh ‘Boss’ Yoovidhya with drunk driving in the hit-and-run case.
According to the Bangkok Post, the inquiry will also look into the reasons why Vorayudh could not be indicted on the speeding charge before the statute of limitations expired in 2013.
Vorayudh allegedly drove his Ferrari into a policeman’s motorbike in the early hours in Bangkok in 2012. The policeman died. According to reports, Vorayudh dragged the body down the street and drove home.
Initially, police pressed drunken driving and speeding charges against the grandson of the Red Bull creator and added death by reckless driving and escaping an arrest after the hit-and-run wreck, but did not charge him with drug abuse even though blood tests found traces of cocaine usage.
The suspect was in Singapore when he didn’t even turn up to hear the indictments against him in 2013. The Red Bull fortune was reported to be around 2.1 per cent of Thailand’s GDP in 2012.