Vietnam remakes two S.Korean anti-smoking advertisements

▲ This photo, provided by the Ministry of Health and Welfare, shows the anti-smoking advertisement remade. (PHOTO NOT FOR SALE) (Yonhap)

SEOUL, July 13 (Yonhap) --The Ministry of Health and Welfare's anti-smoking advertisement is being remade in Vietnam. The public service advertisements produced by the Korean government have played an unusual role in the Hallyu craze.

The Ministry of Health and Welfare announced on Wednesday that by the request of the World Health Organization (WHO) Vietnam office and the Vietnamese Ministry of Health, two Korean TV non-smoking advertisements will be remade in Vietnam.

The two advertisements being remade are the "No Smoking from Today" advertisement produced in 2017 and the "Cigarettes' not an exit, stop smoking and distance yourself from smoking" advertisement produced in 2021.

The "No Smoking From Today" episode depicts a man in his 60s diagnosed with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) after 40 years of smoking reporting the harmful effects of smoking.

"Cigarettes' not an exit" episode emphasizes the use of masks, social distancing, and quiting smoking during COVID-19 by showing a father worry about his child and the child worry about his smoking father.

In addition, one information picture (infographic) video produced by the Ministry of Health and Welfare in 2020 will be introduced to Vietnam in the "Republish" method with Vietnamese subtitles added.

This video is about notifying smokers the increased risk of getting COVID-19 as a smoker. In Vietnam, the existing video is edited into two parts.

The remake/republished video was finally approved for use after undergoing inspection by the Ministry of Health and Welfare. Specifying that it was produced based on the campaign of the Korean Ministry of Welfare, it is being used in Vietnam.

According to the welfare, the use of electronic cigarettes among teenagers and young people in Vietnam is increasing. In large cities such as Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, the rate of electronic cigarettes used among teenagers aged 13-17 was as high as 8%.

To this, the Vietnamese health authorities and the Ho Chi Minh Communist Youth Union plans to launch a large-scale anti-smoking campaign using some of Korea's youth smoking prevention campaign (No Cigarettes campaign).

"This is the first case where a government-produced anti-smoking advertisement has been remade overseas," said Im In-taek, director of health policy at the Ministry of Health and Welfare. "We will contribute to the expansion of smoking cessation not only domestically but also internationally by developing anti-smoking campaigns with more responsibility."

(This article is translated from Korean to English by Haemin Kim.)

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