Titled “Gau Do – Gan Ket Yeu Thuong,” (Red Bear – Tie People’s Love), the commercial was made to promote the Red Bear Instant Noodle brand of the Binh Duong-based Asian Food Corporation.

It tells the story of Tuan, a child with cancer whose family cannot afford the treatment. The clip has touched people by depicting the pain of parents who can’t save their child’s life due to a lack of money. Through the ad, the company has announced a charity program in which VND10 (US$ 0.00048) of every purchase of a pack of Gau Do noodles will be donated to the family.

Many viewers have been moved after watching the advertisement.

Tuan's mother cries since she can't afford her child's treatment.

“The clip has evoked the spirit of solidarity among Vietnamese,” Nguyen Thi Thanh Hoai, an economics student shared. “Once the pioneer in making this kind of advertising, the company has made a difference as well as touched customers’ psychology. I think local enterprises should learn from this to not only sell their products, but to also send meaningful messages to Vietnamese people and the world.”

Duy Linh, another netizen, said it’s reasonable that the company has a foundation for child cancer patients.

“It can help patients with hospital fees as well as tie the love among people,” he added.

However, there’s also a large number of netizens who disagree with the advertisement, caliming that it takes advantage of disadvantaged people.

“People can think of tons of ways to make money, but earning money from the pain of others, especially patients’, is not acceptable,” Minh Bao shared.

“While watching the clip viewers can’t help but cry, but the end of the video doesn’t make sense since it is commercialized. It would be better if the producers hadn’t put advertising into the video,” he added.

Some also oppose the idea of using charity activities to promote commercial products.

“Do they want to use advertising to raise money for charity or use charity to promote their product?” netizen WIKI expressed in anger. “To me, there’s no way to equate advertising and charity, as well as profit and non-profit purposes.”