Thailand, well known for its wonderful pad-thai and chicken satay skewers is working hard to reform its police department. Tired of police officers who who don't follow the rules Thailand has come up with a novel way of punishing its less-than-stellar officers. Officers caught breaking the rules will now be subject to wearing a Hello Kitty armband.
I think shame and humiliation are excellent ways to motivate a workforce, but I think it's interesting that the Thai Police department selected "Hello Kitty". Certainly it's embarrassing, but I wonder what other ideas were considered. Did they have a long list where Hello Kitty was selected as the best choice to shame truant officers, or was that the only option considered? The options seem quite plentiful.
How long before there's a black market for these arm bands on eBay? I'm sure some little girl could get her Dad to bid $100 for one of these. The real shame here is that Thailand is missing out on a great money making opportunity.
The other question is whether the Thai government had to license the likeness of Hello Kitty to put on their arm bands. Hello Kitty is trademarked, so they can't use the image freely. Wouldn't it be great if it turned out that the police department had illegally used the Hello Kitty logo? I wonder what the punishment would be for that...
