When shaped by knowledge, creativity and responsibility, each campaign can become an engaging story about the country and its people, helping spread identity, foster national pride and enhance Viet Nam’s soft power.
Brands tell the story of the country
The Viet Nam Creative Advertising Awards – Van Xuan Awards 2026 was recently launched in Ha Noi under the theme “Culture as a source of prosperity”. The awards were initiated by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism in coordination with the Viet Nam Advertising Association and are held annually to honour outstanding creative advertising ideas with strong practical value and distinctive Vietnamese identity.
After three seasons from 2023 to 2025, the awards have received more than 3,700 entries, bringing together around 400 brands and more than 200 creative experts. This year, the award structure has been expanded to 52 categories, covering television advertising, outdoor advertising, digital platforms, brand campaigns, corporate social responsibility activities and projects by young talents.
Nguyen Truong Son, Chairman of the Viet Nam Advertising Association, said that in the context of cultural industries becoming a new driver of development, advertising not only performs the function of brand communication, but can also spread the image, identity and cultural soft power of Viet Nam.
According to the Strategy for the Development of Viet Nam’s Cultural Industries to 2030, with a vision to 2045, issued under Decision No. 2486/QD-TTg dated November 14, 2025, advertising is one of the 10 cultural industries, alongside cinema, performing arts, fine arts-photography-exhibitions, software and entertainment games, handicrafts, cultural tourism, creative design, television-radio and publishing.
The strategy sets a target that by 2030, revenue from the advertising industry will reach around 80 trillion VND, equivalent to about 3.2 billion USD, while also identifying the need to promote the development of advertising products on digital platforms and build a safe and healthy digital advertising ecosystem.
Advertising is creating value in both economic and cultural terms. Economically, advertising connects businesses with consumers, drives markets and creates jobs across many sectors. Culturally, advertising can transform cultural resources into communication products with wide circulation, helping the story of Viet Nam be retold through the language of images, sound, technology and contemporary experiences. As Vietnamese brands expand into international markets, advertising content also helps shape how the world sees and understands the country and people of Viet Nam.
Contributing to Viet Nam’s soft power
In recent years, inspiration from Vietnamese culture has appeared increasingly clearly in many advertising campaigns. At the Van Xuan Awards 2025, Viet Nam Airlines’ “Van Dam Nang Niu” won first prize in television advertising, while FPT Telecom’s “Mot Sac Cam – Ngan Dam Viet” won first prize in billboard and outdoor advertising.
In the category for young talents, the communication and illustration exhibition project “Tinh Hoa Phi Hinh” by students of Hoa Sen University won first prize, while the project “Tuong Khoi Bao Tang – Tuong Hoa Dien Anh” by a group of students from Ho Chi Minh City received second prize. What these projects share is the effort to take heritage beyond familiar spaces of display and bring it into the design, communication and experiences of a new generation.
The reach of advertising is created when the public not only recognises a brand, but also finds part of their own life reflected in it. A train journey home to parents, the call of loved ones around a family meal, a dish bearing the imprint of a region, memories of a city, or the hands of a craftsperson can all become details that anchor public emotions. When it touches the shared experiences of a community in the right way, advertising can naturally and enduringly awaken love for the homeland and national pride.
However, experts say cultural values must first be properly understood before being transformed into creative language, in order to achieve communication effectiveness and help spread cultural values.
At present, what concerns many people is that some advertisements place too much emphasis on attracting attention, regardless of professional standards. As a result, there has been a rise in content that exaggerates product benefits, exploits gender stereotypes and superstition, uses vulgar language, or takes advantage of the reputation of artists and influencers to shape consumer trust. Such content not only violates commercial principles and runs counter to cultural values, but also damages social trust, creates information disorder and affects consumer interests.
The legal framework in the advertising sector is increasingly being improved, including Law No. 75/2025/QH15 amending and supplementing a number of articles of the Law on Advertising, which takes effect on January 1, 2026; Government Decree No. 342/2025/ND-CP, effective from February 15, 2026, detailing a number of articles of the Law on Advertising; and Government Decree No. 87/2026/ND-CP on administrative penalties in the field of culture and advertising. These are important legal tools that help define the responsibilities of actors involved in advertising activities and strengthen the handling of violations in the digital environment and on cross-border platforms.
Ninh Thi Thu Huong, Director of the Department of Grassroots Culture, Family and Library, said the new regulations on the digital environment and cross-border platforms have helped address legal gaps, enhance the responsibility of those who convey advertisements, protect consumers and move towards a more transparent, fair and healthy market.
For advertising to help spread identity, foster national pride and enhance Viet Nam’s soft power, the advertising industry needs to aim for standards higher than merely “not violating” regulations. Every campaign that draws on traditional materials must be grounded in serious research. When using the heritage, rituals, costumes, patterns or knowledge of a community, creative agencies need to consult researchers, artisans and the cultural subjects themselves. Businesses and advertising companies should establish cultural and ethical appraisal processes from the very stage of idea formation.
In addition to recognition, sales and engagement, a campaign should be assessed in terms of its social impact, to ensure that it does not create social prejudice, offend beliefs, hurt vulnerable groups or distort heritage values. This responsibility must become a constant awareness among clients, creators, publishers and those who convey advertisements. At the same time, training institutions in communications, advertising and design need to equip learners with knowledge of history, art, professional ethics and intellectual property.
When each brand knows how to tell the story of Viet Nam in an engaging, modern way that honours identity, advertising will help promote Viet Nam’s soft power and position the country’s values and national brand on the world map.
