Hi, I'm very (very!) new to the BL fandoms. I'm still figuring out what is what, so the SmartBoom news is the first major event I see unwind in real time. And I have a question - call me crazy, and maybe I am, but is it AT ALL possible for all of this to be an outlandish PR stunt?
Because 1) it makes literally zero sense, business-wise, for Smart to be doing it, according to the info those statements revealed themselves;
2) it's WAY too much on the nose with the basically verbatim situations we saw in the series to be just a coincidence, and
3) companies won't care if they seem like the Bad Guy here in the end, because they are universally hated anyway; however, if played right, and if the boys are made to seem to be "fighting" with them, and "prevailing", united Jin-Akin style, this might become this giant, transcending the screen "love-that-conquers-all", and turning the CP of SmartBoom into something legendary, iconic, and with potentially cult following. And turning them into a staple that surely will be supported/watched by EVERYONE in whatever they put them in - if for nothing else, then for the "Davids in love sticking it to the corporate Goliath" principle alone. All the while the corp guys preserve their power and control, because however (if at all) successful the stunt, they still stack the deck, and hold all the cards and power.
Obviously all of it sounds like some 3-rd rate series cartoon vilain plot, but didn't all analysis and metas posted lately claim how excessively greedy companies have become for engagement, trending, buzz, and popularity, and how they would do ANYTHING to get it, at the expence of everything and everyone? Would any stupidity, trick or stunt be too low to sink to, if it gets them there?
(That ask would make sense only if we DO observe some "heroic" actions and reconciliation, of course. If the ship sank, it's obviously just a few short-sighted guys in a petty, nano-dick measuring contest, ruining a good thing for literally everyone involved, including themselves. It's just, I always prefer to believe that when it's about big business and money, there's some convoluted, sinister plots at play, rather than plain, old, trivial, ABSOLUTE CORP STUPIDITY.)
Hello NewbieAnon and welcome to BL! I promise you we're not always putting fires out here 😅 It can actually be really fun, you just need to find the right ones to stan. And thank you for the ask!
Gosh I hope you can make sense of my very long SmartBoom posts 😅 I know I often write very long and very tangential, so please excuse the excessive blabber.
Anyway, first off, I LOVE your take on this! I really do. In fact, I'm hoping and praying that your hypothesis prevails, because if this PR stunt is a bamboozle to just hype the coming seasons, then I will take back everything I've said about these companies and will support ALL of their projects, even for other pairs, moving forward. Yes, it's greedy and manipulative, but if it means a career for their employees (not just Smart and Boom, but their co-stars, the people behind the scenes, their personal teams, their managers, etc.), then I will let the hustle absolve all sins.
On the outset, this social media bickering DOES look very stupid, right? Especially for industry veterans and definitely in 2025. Everything actually looks pre-planned and very in-series adjacent that someone even said this all feels like a Top Form episode, and I would agree with you my friend, if this was the first time this ever happened.
Sadly, in Thai BL (and so far, only in Thailand. Taiwan, Korea, and Japan producers have not exhibited the same issue, particularly because they don't establish branded pairs), this has happened many times over: companies screwing over their talents and the pairs just because they wanted a larger cut of the profit pie.
Before the pandemic, aside from GMMTV, branded pairs usually belonged to different companies or managements. Thai BL at the time was so new and not well-established, that bigger companies didn't see the benefits of investing in it-- often just loaning their dormant actors to indie BL producers for a quick paycheck. Most often, the prod houses who make BLs cast newbies or independent actors for their shows. Branded pairs aren't as big a deal as it was back then too, and cps weren't expected to do actual couple activities after the airing of a show. In fact, fandoms mostly just named themselves 😅 none of these naming ceremonies and hashtag nonsense. GMMTV really was the only company to commit to the concept, and they were rewarded handsomely for it (but maybe that's a post for another day).
The in-fighting was more common then because of this. PerthSaint was one of the first non-GMMTV pseudo-branded pairs to come out of early Thai BL, and they had a MASSIVE fanbase, but because they belonged to different companies that absolutely hated each other's guts, the pair perished before it ever became properly established (they never even had a joint fandom name. The Trigon fandom was supposed to be Saint's solo fandom name that bled into Perth's, which was then adapted for both of them). The show 2Moons had such a well-documented indie company vs. affiliate producer fiasco that they recast EVERYONE three times just to get the project off the ground. My Engineer the Series was another example, which spent two years in production hell before debuting with a cast of loaned and newbie actors, before promptly dropping said cast and never speaking of a season 2 they announced before airing Season 1. I've mentioned MewGulf and ZaintSee already because they were casualties too, but I have a few other examples (and these ones were actually established). First, OhmFluke: Ohm Thitiwat was a Studio WabiSabi talent, and given the number of continuous projects he had with co-star Fluke, you'd think the latter was a WabiSabi talent too. But he never formally joined the company, and after years of fighting with said company (and the affiliate producer WeTV *sighs*) to give him proper compensation for their project 609 Bedtime Story, Fluke Natouch officially left the branded pair. My most recent casualty is actually KaoUp (the same Up Poompat who is now in an actual branded pair with Poom Phuripan of My Stand-In), because though they only had one project together, they consistently appeared in each others' content and sponsorships. When Kao Noppakao signed a contract with Channel 3, the company entered a deal with Up's independent agency JustUp to loan Kao for BL projects with his brand partner Up, but a year later that deal also fell through, and Up found a new acting partner from Channel 8, who agreed to loan their dormant actor at the time, Poom Phuripan, to IQIYI.
That is to say, that not all BL branded pairs coming from different companies automatically fail, or get in a fight with each other's managements. I mentioned UpPoom up there because Poom's case is very unique, and might be more related to your ask than you think 😅 Poom was loaned by Channel 8 to IQIYI, (similar to what GIR did to Smart), but they had no intention of letting him go or establishing him in a branded pair outside of their company (he had a hetero semi-pair in Channel 8 already). After My Stand-In's runaway success, Poom actually terminated his contract with Channel 8, paid the fine and almost sued them for contract breach, left the company, founded his own studio Phumipatsorn 1997, and launched jointly with JustUp as an official affiliate. They are now in talks to do a second BL project with *sigh* WeTV. They have joint Youtube content and music, which is different from their individual solo work. This UpPoom blueprint is very similar to Billkin and PP Krit, who created individual companies after Nadao Bangkok went under, but continue to work together and do cp activities. They recently aired a bromance movie titled The Red Envelope.
YinWar is actually the best case scenario for a couple like SmartBoom, because Yin Anan and War Wanarat left BOTH of their companies and made their own JOINT company (YWPB Entertainment, what absolute BADASSES), and now they do BLs and cp activities that they chose for themselves.
This is all a very long-winded way of saying that Newbie Anon, though I love your take on these shenanigans, realistically I think GIR and HDL/TaiLai are being DEAD SERIOUS about their spats on social media, and that though these may be good PR, their tiny, money-hungry brains PROBABLY haven't figured that out yet.
But I mention UpPoom, BillkinPP, and YinWar because these three couples used their very public company woes to actually CATAPULT them to bigger fandoms. They know that airing and framing their against-all-odds story (which actually happened to them too, these companies were dead serious when they placed all three in hot water), to the masses would help their careers more, and this PR actually HELPED THEIR CAREERS. They sell out literal stadiums just for fans to hear their successful cp stories. If their companies cannot transform this bad press to loyal fan engagement, then I hope SmartBoom WILL, and use this PR nightmare to come out better and stronger for the sake of their careers.
Sorry this was so long but I hope it helped answer your ask even a little Newbie Anon! Welcome to the kooky world of BL!
