Lalune Vejari, one of Thailand’s most recognisable television actresses, said on Thursday she would delay her planned return to the screen for six months after her first filing under the country’s new endorsement law listed 46.8 million baht (about €1.25 million) in commercial deals. The 34-year-old said she would review every sponsored post she had made since 2025 and pause brand partnerships until that work was complete.
The Public Endorsement Register Act took effect on 1 November. It requires public figures with more than one million followers to disclose cash, gifts and production support worth at least 500,000 baht per campaign, including deals from the previous 18 months; repeated omissions can bring fines of up to two million baht. The register is searchable by campaign and sponsor.
Vejari’s entry lists 11 campaigns, including an 18.2 million baht agreement with a bottled-water company. Several were tied to her online series about reducing household waste, whose posts she had described as “my own reset”. The filing does not allege wrongdoing, but it gives viewers a new reason to ask whether her advice was personal, paid, or both.
The price of a personal recommendation
For years, Vejari built an image around ordinary routines: market shopping, home cooking and small environmental changes. Her short “One Bottle, One Week” series urged viewers to reduce disposable packaging, while its newly disclosed sponsor supplied products and paid for production. The act does not bar such deals; it makes the financial relationship visible.
“The danger is that the public will read a payment as proof that every opinion was bought,” said Sybil Fang, a researcher at the Bangkok Institute for Media Law. “A register can clarify a relationship, but it can also flatten the difference between a scripted advert and a genuine recommendation.” Fang said smaller creators may be especially exposed if they lack advisers to classify gifts and production costs.
Arvind Kumar, director of the Office of Commercial Communications, said the registry had received 642 filings in its first four days, with 81 returned for missing details. He said the office would publish guidance on bundled campaigns next week. Media-law lecturer Au Eu L. Rajakumar warned that the short deadline could leave celebrities “choosing between a rushed disclosure and silence”, particularly when a brand provides services rather than cash.
A comeback under new terms
Vejari said she had appointed a five-person review panel, with two veteran entertainment agents and three first-time advisers from outside celebrity management, including an accountant and a regional theatre organiser. The mix recalls a recent council committee selection in which experienced members were paired with newcomers; here, the blend is meant to scrutinise the business habits of the people who usually shape a star’s public image.
Her return to television had been scheduled for January, according to the broadcaster’s published programme calendar. Vejari said the project was still planned, but that future campaigns would carry a disclosure label on the first post and a link to the official register. The law has not forced her off screen; it has made the cost of appearing spontaneous much harder to conceal.
