Vietnam Advertising Association Surfaces: WTF? A party at the zoo!

Just in: In the wake of The BIG SHOW, I received this news notice yesterday from the Saigon Times regarding yet another show, sponsored by the Vietnam Advertising Association and coming up this weekend, at the Ho Chi Minh City Zoo. WTF? Look, I don’t come up with this stuff, I just report it.

By Huu Thang – The Saigon Times Daily

HCMC – Vietnam Advertising Festival 2008, organized by the Vietnam Advertising Association (VAA) and Sunflower Media Co. Ltd., will take place for the first time next Friday and Saturday at the HCMC Zoo and Botanical Garden.

The festival will display over 100 ads selected from Cannes Lions 2008 and Yellow Bell 2008 and ads winning the Vietnam Young Lions award, said the organizing committee.

With all due respect to the writer and staff at the Times, who undoubtedly wrote this from a press release, this story is just a minefield of misinformation, disinformation and just plain incomplete information. What time is the show? Who should I contact for more information? Where is the website I can visit? And what do all those confusing show titles mean? My notice came from a Google Alert and I have seen nothing at all from the Vietnam News, or any of the other major Vietnamese newspapers on the event. At least, The Vietnam Advertising Association should get together with the Vietnamese Public Relations Association and structure a proper release and release schedule. Announcing it one week before in a relatively obscure, English, city-only, newspaper, is curious at best. I will attend the show and file a report afterwards. And who knows, I may be surprised. All I know now, is that the association responsible for promoting the show could look to their moniker and do a whole lot more of “word #2″ to get the news out.

In other unofficial reports, VAA rules will follow the same scheme as most other world-renowned Ad shows as follows: Direct Mail categories will be judged and showcased in the Aviary Center, TV in the Lion House, with Account Service awards presented deep inside the Snake House. Elephants have been charged with stamping out unacceptable entries and lizards, small mammals and lemurs will officiate opening and closing ceremonies. The usual assortment of Monkeys, Gorillas and other primates are slated to handle judging.