Social distancing be damned in Tuborg's Vietnam campaign

Tired of the elbow bump? So is Ad Nut, who admittedly never had long arms to begin with (the 'tail sweep' is the socially acceptable close-range physical salutation of this species these days, though nothing beats a good chattering from a distance). 

And so too apparently are the good people at Tuborg and Happiness Saigon who now feel bold enough to publicise a campaign aimed at clustering as many faces together as a group of friends or strangers can. 

At this point you're suspecting Ad Nut's claws are coming out, right? Wrong. Ad Nut loves this campaign. It's innovative, it's inclusive, the music is great and production execution is spot-on. 

The interactive music video is part of Tuborg Open, an annual musical collaboration between global and local artists. This year, two of Vietnam's hottest artists, JustaTee and Phuong Ly teamed up to create Ta Là, an awesome V-pop song with lyrics that talk about the importance of opening minds and being open to more. 

Agency Happiness Saigon and its in-house production unit Bliss Interactive then took the theme of being open to others a step further in the song's interactive music video (above). When viewed on the Tuborg Open website, facial detection software detects how many people are watching the video and adds more groups of people to the video scenes. The case study video below explains more. 

It's a great concept in normal times, which was clearly developed pre-pandemic. The music video, which doubles as a demonstration of the video, was released on YouTube in early February and has garnered more than 6.5 million views since. 

The only problem with it is the unfortunate timing around the spread of COVID-19, although the experience should still work with masks and can be enjoyed together by families and friends in a bubble. Fortunately, Vietnam is a world leader in its proactivity to fight COVID-19 with zero deaths from the pandemic in the country—making it one of the safest places to gather around an interactive screen should people want to. 

It's images like this from the explainer video that the agency should really think about re-editing

Ad Nut's recommendation is to enjoy the experience safely (with family or friends with masks) and let the music video 'open our minds' to the hope that we can one day be back in closer contact with others.

Ad Nut is a surprisingly literate woodland creature that for unknown reasons has an unhealthy obsession with advertising. Ad Nut gathers ads from all over Asia and the world for your viewing pleasure, because Ad Nut loves you. You can also check out Ad Nut's Advertising Hall of Fame, or read about Ad Nut's strange obsession with 'murderous beasts'.