Sure - you can't tell much of a story in a single image, so you piggy-back on an existing narrative, and increase its salience and availability, while associating it with the brand target.
I'm no advertising expert, but I don't believe that brand advertising doesn't work. It's clear that Thailand is already more salient and relevant to you, but that doesn't mean that advertising for Indonesia is pointless; it's just that it's starting with fewer hooks, and it's got to reach for stories more indirectly.
I wouldn't make the extrapolation that brand advertising doesn't work -- that's too general. I was merely observing that for countries (as opposed to consumer products), advertising alone isn't sufficiently salient to create an emotional connection -- efforts to produce culture and export soft power are much more along the right track.
Take Canada for instance -- I'm from there. Anthony Bourdain had this to say on Canadian tourism ads: “Whoever is in charge of promoting Canada abroad completely have their heads up their asses. It’s all like bears and swatting salmon and Mounties.”
Canada is so much richer than the stereotypes Americans have of us -- we're not just about the pristine wilderness, cold winters and funny accents. Canada's cities are culturally deep and have a dynamism fueled by immigration that is palpable--and more compelling than many U.S. cities--due to sheer Brownian motion collisions of different cultures. The dynamism of Toronto rivals and in some ways exceed that of Chicago where I now live.
So much culture and innovation is being created every day in food (especially in Montreal), TV shows, movies, universities, arts, etc. in Canada but no one has figured out how to sell that.
To be fair, there are some small successes: Anne of Green Gables for instance is a distinct cultural product that guarantees hordes of visitors to Prince Edward Island every summer without fail and with a near zero advertising budget. We need more of this.
I'm no advertising expert, but I don't believe that brand advertising doesn't work. It's clear that Thailand is already more salient and relevant to you, but that doesn't mean that advertising for Indonesia is pointless; it's just that it's starting with fewer hooks, and it's got to reach for stories more indirectly.