Social media, especially Facebook, helps artists and celebrities approach audiences. However, besides using their personal pages to connect with friends and fans, many of them use Facebook pages for commercial purposes.

The more famous they are, the higher numbers of followers they have, and the higher advert fees they earn. 

Normally, they can get several million VND to tens of millions of VND for each advert, depending on their fame and the fame of the brands. 

With several words or a paragraph, plus photos, they earn money which is sometimes higher than their earnings from their official jobs.

Social media has quickly become a chaotic advertising channel and a place for toxic ads. People read information about all kinds of products, from  powder advertised to help make teeth white, lipsticks, beauty services, English centers, feng shui amulets, cryptocurrency and drugs that need a doctors’ prescription for use. 

Many artists don’t have any artistic activities for a long time and don’t share articles about their new projects, but regularly post stories about such products. 

With such a high frequency of ads, everyone knows that artists don’t have time to examine the products.

In May 2021, followers were surprised seeing official fanpages of many celebrities such as Kieu Minh Tuan, Ngoc Trinh, Kha Nhu and Le Duong Bao Lam posting ads with the keyword #DOGE (short for Dogecoin) with similar content and hashtags. 

When the posts faced criticism from society, they were hidden without any apology. 

Meanwhile, some celebrities posted stories about cryptocurrencies and investment in cryptocurrencies as if they were real financial investors.

In 2022, some celebrities advertised feng-shui items on their personal pages. 

The posts were nearly the same and showed a link to the personal page of a fortune teller. 

This was clearly an act of spreading superstition, but it was still advertised by celebrities because of the handsome remuneration.

After facing public criticism, the posts were deleted, but the negative impact of the posts cannot be measured. Although the posts were removed, this does not lessen the audience's suspicion and loss of trust.

Nguyen Hoang