Director Vu Ngoc Dang (R) shoots a scene for a TV series in HCMC.

Advertising on Vietnam’s most popular TV shows has skyrocketed over the years, and viewers say they’re becoming fed up.

Increasingly, Vietnamese television viewers say they are becoming fed up with the number of commercials shown on TV during their favorite shows. Many lament that as the country becomes more modernized, the amount of marketing they are exposed to on a daily basis has increased as well.

TV viewer Minh Tu said that while advertising can be useful at times, she’s tired of being bombarded by ads while watching her favorite

TV shows and questions whether the commercials are still effective when the audience has become weary of them.

“The commercials give me some useful information, like about products on sale for instance, but I think that viewers tune out after a while when there are too many ads on TV shows,” she said.

According to Allan Moore and Tomi T. Ahonen, authors of the book “Communities Dominate Brands: Business and marketing challenges for the 21st century,” consumers today are the ones defining brands, even redefining them. They evaluate a product based on their actual experience with it, not by passively taking the word of TV commercials extolling the virtues of the brand.

Yet marketing shows no signs of stopping, especially in Vietnam, as ever-aggressive TV advertising campaigns dominate the airwaves.

In 2001, Vietnam initiated the Advertisement Ordinances act which states that during any given television program, no more than 5 percent of the show’s time slot can be filled by commercials, with the exception of some channels which are solely dedicated to running ads and infomercials.

But in reality, most networks to do not adhere to the rules and TV series often run countless commercials throughout their air time. During the brief seven-minute show Chuc be ngu ngon (Goodnight, baby) or eight-minute Bo tu 10A8 (10A8 Foursome), for instance, commercials make up nearly 30 percent of the total running time.

A new bill has been proposed outlining that television programs with a running time of less than 15 minutes would not be permitted to show any commercials, though with the potential for large profits at stake, it remains to be seen whether the bill will pass.

Local television networks like Ho Chi Minh City Television (HTV) and Vietnam Television (VTV), for instance, see the development of programming in Vietnam as a golden opportunity to capitalize on TV’s growing popularity. Highly-rated shows like Bong dung muon khoc (Suddenly wanna cry), and Lap trinh cho trai tim (Programming the heart) draw large numbers of viewers with companies paying large sums to run their ads during the shows.

Renowned television and film director Vu Ngoc Dang said he not only relies on advertising money to make a profit, but having many commercials run during a show that he’s created, is a source of great pride.

“Having many ads [shown during a program] means the TV series is attracting a lot of viewers and is really successful,” he said.

Yet Dang also recognizes the danger in overwhelming audiences with too many ads.

“Together with the good is also the bad consequence of bothering the viewers and interrupting their enjoyment of a program. I think one of the solutions is increasing the price paid by companies to show ads during top-rated series. This may limit the quantity of marketers [who are able to pay],” said Dang.

Director Nhue Giang echoes Dang’s sentiment and thinks that networks, ad companies, and TV producers need to work together to achieve a compromise.

“Making TV shows is good for Vietnam’s culture, so it should not be driven purely by profit. Everyone has their own opinions, but I think the TV stations and marketers must reevaluate their current practices and balance the amount of interruptive ads,” said Giang.

Reported by Cat Khue – Nguyen Van