Exiled academic’s billboard quickly taken down at Siam Square One for ‘political reason’

A Thai academic-cum-political exile-cum-eyewear model is not welcome back home – even if it’s just on a billboard.

Eyewear brand Opthus said it was forced to take down a billboard of Pavin Chachavalpongpun from above its Siam Square shop today by police and its university landlord, authorities.

“Police came to [our store] and told us that we cannot put [the billboard] up because of a political reason,” a store employee told Coconuts Bangkok on Friday afternoon. He refused to give his name.

The company apologized to customers and fans that it could not put up the billboard. It said that the Chulalongkorn University Property Management, which owns the Siam Square area, would not allow the billboard to remain up.

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