VietNamNet Bridge – Advertisement leaflets, brochures have been delivered at schools, banderoles have been hung at the school entrance, in front of classes.

The billboard at a kindergarten in District 5 in HCM City

Vietnamese students do not have to go to school in summer. However, schools still open on summer days. Extra classes still run every day, while marketing officers, with industry and cleverness, still go to school every day to persuade students to buy their products.

The products introduced on summer holiday are mostly the education and entertainment services, such as English classes, live skill classes, tours and summer camps. It’s so easy to find the information about the services nowadays: one can read the information on the banners stuck on the wall, the banderoles hung over every block of the schools, and even the leaflets laying on the ground.

Dairy products, soft drinks and telecommunication services have also been introduced into schools. In order to attract the small clients, manufacturers or service providers install kiosk right on the campuses of schools, where beautiful young girls introduce products and services to students.

When asked if advertisements should be allowed to appear at schools, Mai Phuong, a parent in district 5 of HCM City said children nowadays watch ad piece video clips on TV every day, and that she does not want her children to meet ad pieces at school as well.

Another parent has complained that the things that children most regularly meet every day are the ad pieces. They see ad pieces on TV, hear advertisement clips on buses, read ad posters on streets and at schools.

“My son has learned by heart a lot of advertisement slogans, while he sometimes forgets his lessons. It’s simply because he hears the slogans many times a day, while he only attends the lessons for some hours a day,” she said.

The parent has called on to install a barrier to prevent advertisements and trade activities to penetrate schools to ensure a purely pedagogical environment for schools.

“No ad banderoles or billboards should be allowed to appear at schools,” she said. “School must be different from a market.”

However, she admitted that it’s difficult to prohibit manufacturers and service providers to sell goods and services at school. In fact, schools can get big benefits when allowing manufacturers to sell goods and services at the schools.

In general, advertisement billboards mostly appear at nursery schools, primary schools, and some secondary and high schools with poor material facilities. Producers and distributors would offer to give financial support to schools, and in return, the schools need to reserve certain spaces for them to advertise their products.

A dairy producer reportedly sponsored the building of some notice boards for a school. And in return, the producer can set up its logo on the notice boards, which occupy a large area of the boards.

Especially, an ad firm in Binh Thanh district is now inviting producers to post ad pieces at schools.

“Advertising at schools is really a wise, economical and effective way for businesses. If you want to introduce your products to consumers in the quickest and most effective way, please contact us,” the letter sent by the company to other businesses reads.

This seems to be a very attractive invitation, especially in the context of big economic difficulties, when businesses have to cut down expenses, but traditional ad methods are too costly.

Hieu Minh