Diseases, toxin, food hygiene problems and price escalation have become the obsessions of consumers. However, businesses have been taking full advantage of the things to advertise their products or do marketing for new brands.

 

 It is a growing tendency that businesses launch the advertisement pieces with the emphases on the safety, food hygiene and reasonable prices of products, especially food, and essential goods for daily life.

 Housewives have many times watched the ad piece which shows the image of a girl with a lot of bacteria in the mouth because the girl did not use the right anti-bacteria toothpaste. They have also got used to the image of a dirty chopping-board used for cutting garlic, chili or making sauces, which make them shiver. Especially, consumers have been told that a young mother has to bring her child to hospital because she used the wrong soap.

 As cancers have become the obsession of people, some companies have spent money to advertise that their products do not contain toxic substances which cause cancers. Masan’s Tien Vu instant noodle has been advertised as not containing transfat and the preservative E102, while an agar product has been advertised as not containing DEHP.

 Meanwhile, some other ad pieces focus on financial problems. “A kilogram of orange nectar is equivalent to 2.6 kilograms of fresh oranges” is the message of an ad piece which has attracted the special attention from women.

 Van, an office worker in Hanoi, said that a kilogram of fresh oranges is selling at 40,000 dong, while 2.6 kilos would cost 100,000 dong. If the information provided by the producer is true, one would be foolish if he buys fresh oranges. “I watched the ad piece so many times that I always have to think carefully before buying fresh oranges,” Van said.

 According to VnExpress, most of the ad pieces which strike on the fears of consumers are the ad pieces for essential goods – the field where there are too many rivals. By arousing consumer’ fears about toxic products, producers try to persuade consumers to use their non-toxic products and show the advantages of their products over other products.

 

“I usually use a chopping-board to cut chili and garlic. But I have got frightened after I watched the ad piece. I don’t know if they are true or they just threaten consumers,” said Chien in Kim Nguu residential quarter.

 

Pham Thi Thanh, a housewife in Hanoi, said that she and other members of her family do not like similar ad pieces. She believes that the main goal of advertisement is to introduce new products, not to arouse fear to the people who don’t use the products. “The information about toxic products can be heard everywhere,” Thanh said.

 Commenting about the ad pieces, Nguyen Dinh Thanh, Media Director of Le Bros, a media company, said that in principle, the authors of the ad pieces have been properly following the methods they learned. However, he also said that a company should not do the things which may badly influence others. Legally, the laws do not allow to post ad pieces which are based on wrong information.

 An advertisement and marketing expert believes that companies absolutely have the right to make public similar ad pieces if they have reliable information. He stressed that taking full advantage of people’s fears to advertise products is also a reasonable way which can create strong emotions to the audience.

 The expert said that if some one uses the rod wisely, he would be strong, powerful and considered as a wise man. Vice versa, if he provides wrong information, the rod would harm him.

 According to Nguyen Manh Hung, Deputy Chair of the Vietnam Consumers’ Right Protection Association, under the current laws, if ad pieces mislead consumers, consumers have the right to take legal proceedings against the enterprises which order the ad pieces, while the ad agents have to take liable responsibility, unless they can prove that they have done every thing they can to verify the information.

 

Vietnamnet/ KC