Every Saturday night, a mob of vendors descends upon this ancient street to block out their selling space by spreading cloth sheets on the dirty road surface. Upon these sheets they display their products to lure buyers who stroll happily along the crowded lane, viewing this and that item, everything on sale at a wonderfully steep discount.

A Nation employee wandered down there recently and bagged home a set of speakers made in China. The price? A stupendous Bt250.

More surprisingly, our reporter was there last week and found two crystal balls. For the general public, the balls are of no significance, despite their beautiful design. But to people in the advertising industry, they are treasured as proof of their creativity. The balls are unmistakably from the AdFest Awards.

They are coveted by ad people  who fervently believe that the Asia-Pacific advertising awards - just wrapping up its 10th annual event last weekend - are in the same league as the Lions Awards given out at Cannes.

Given their importance, how could two awards end up at the second-hand market?

Pessimists might say that the award winners did not see their importance and tossed them into the trash. 

Optimists are of the opinion, however, that the awards might have been stored in an inappropriate place.

Someone in the winner's family could have unknowingly trashed the balls and a second-hand vendor spotted them and put them on sale.

Whoever is right, it is sad for all award winners. While their advertisements are winning international accolades, the awards presented to acknowledge their creativity landed in a junk market and, even then, failed to attract any buyers.

Frothy question

Bars are the favourite places of drinkers, particularly at airports where travellers drink to kill time.

Heineken knows this. This month, the Dutch brewers opened a bar at Hong Kong's international airport. Bar stools and green neon decorations reflect the Heineken logo. Not only beer but merchandise like tee-shirts and beer mugs are sold to visitors to strengthen its brand.

According to the Asian Wall Street Journal, Europe's largest brewer hopes that the Hong Kong bar will spur a worldwide chain of airport pubs. The idea is to create a global bar brand. These bars can fill a vital niche at airports where beer is the second most consumed beverage after coffee.

Unfortunately, the article did not say whether Heineken plans to open a bar at Suvarnabhumi Airport.

Hmm, if that's the plan, the brewers would need to endure a tough fight against the new anti-alcohol act. But without a bar at Suvarnabhumi, can it be considered a worldwide network?

achara_d@nationgroup.com