and the merit-making, while critics argue that "merit was being marketed as some kind of commodity which could be exchanged for money", and a form of "religious consumerism". Wat Phra Dhammakaya practices have sometimes been criticised by some attackers as a "prosperity movement", because members believe giving to the temple coupled with the meditation practices can ensure their own "prosperity and status". The temple's approach to commercializing donations is seen in other prosperity movements of Thailand. Wat Phra Dhammakaya relies on donations and merit making to build temples and operate its organization. It runs consumer-savvy media placement and billboards to deploy "consumerist competitive and advertising strategy with the traditional belief of merit accumulation which ends up in the merchandization of merit", states Mackenzie. This is echoed by anthropologist Sandra Cate. The donors of the temple are promised rewards in future rebirths, and their donations are recognized in public ceremonies. For instance, those who gift regular monthly donations become a part of the "millionaires' club" who are guaranteed "rebirth as a millionaire" in future rebirths. Leading donors are publicly recognized as examples, and donor groups are credited by certain titles. Wat Phra Dhammakaya, states Mackenzie, offers "a variety of convenient options" to donate, leveraging the traditional Thai belief in karmic theory as the accumulation of merit through the cycle of rebirths. In the studies of anthropologist Apinya Fuengfusakul she compares the merit-making at Wat Phra Dhammakaya with the marketing of a product, pointing out how the temple makes merit-making very convenient and pleasant. However, the temple does not see this as compromising the sacred element of Buddhism, but rather as amplifying it. The temple teaches that a temple must be 'suitable' () for spiritual practice, a term also referred to in Wat Paknam. The height of the criticism of the temple's fundraising occurred in the late 1990s, during the onset of 1997 Asian Financial crisis. Scholar Ravee Phawilai of Chulalongkorn University went as far as accusing the temple of "commercializing Buddhism to seek money and power". According to one CNN news reporter, the criticism against the temple may reflect a general criticism of Thai Buddhism as a whole, as the commercializing of Buddhism became the most controversial religious problem in the 1990s in Thailand. Although many of the temple's methods and teachings were not unique to Wat Phra Dhammakaya, the criticism came at a moment when the temple was very noticeable,