Is this one of the most inclusive advertising campaigns in recent history?
In its latest campaign aimed at Vietnam’s year-end wedding season, Saigon-based jewelry company PNJ (Phu Nhuan Jewelry) made waves in the local cybersphere for a feel-good television commercial featuring a same-sex couple. Promotional materials for the campaign, named Dep Doi Ve Mot Nha, were released around November last year until the end of the year.
The media were created for Hanh Phuc Vang (Golden Joy), PNJ’s wedding-focused sub-brand with products catering to all Vietnam’s nuptial needs. The commercial is a sugary video showing five different couples doing couply activities while brandishing PNJ rings, set to indie band Da LAB’s sleeper hit ‘Mot Nha’ (One Home).
Admittedly, the TVC doesn’t stray far from common tropes in wedding-related campaigns, especially when it comes to tones or key message, but the featured couples do offer some refreshing qualities. It starts with a tagline saying “Based on true stories” and displays the hashtag #ĐẹpĐôi (loosely translated as “beautiful” or “nice couple”) throughout the clip whenever a couple appears.
The gay couple is shown around the one minute mark, depicted as campers caught in the rain in the middle of the forest. Just when viewers were about to assume that they’re just platonic buddies with non-matching rings, they start holding hands while marveling at a romantic sunset, and then while peering contemplatively at a campfire.
Apart from the same-sex couple, the video also features two couples with noticeable differences in height and weight. Such discrepancies, especially when the male partner is the shorter or skinnier one, are sometimes frowned upon by traditionalists but are undoubtedly not to the degree of stigma that same-sex couples still face today.
For a 30-year-old brand, PNJ took a considerable risk, but it looks like it paid off: young netizens were very receptive to the video on Facebook and YouTube.
“The new generation is more open-minded. We want to communicate open-minded messages to the youth to build an authentic relationship with our target audience,” PNJ Group Brand Manager Phan Nguyen Hoai Anh said of the campaign at a talk. He added that the brand’s customers are getting younger with many millennials and Gen Z members.
Phu Nhuan Jewelry was established in 1988 as a state company owned by the Phu Nhuan People’s Committee in Saigon. It became a joint stock company in the 2000s and is currently one of the most well-known local brands in Vietnam.
Have a look at the TVC below:
Video via YouTube channel PNJ Jewelry.
