Its television advertisement appeared during the final European Champion League's live football match on Channel VTV3 of Vietnam Television early on the morning of May 29.
The 5-second clip simply showed off a short sentence: "Kangaroo: The leading water purification in Vietnam ."
The clip appeared during the golden time of advertisement: the period right before and during the break time of the match. It displayed only the logo of Kangaroo Company, the producer's contact number and address and a sharp noise. The clip was then repeated multiple times throughout the football match.
However, most audiences felt uncomfortable with the clip and had to escape by switching over to other channels. A few days after its football match appearance, the clip is still leaving echoes among the internet user community, especially football fans.
Staying up all night for a classical football match, Nguyen Trung Hieu – a Manchester United fan, was in very bad mood after the clip, which worsened when his favourite football team lost to Barcelona .
"Many big local and international branch names chose that period for their advertisement. However, I've never seen such a kind of advertisement like the Kangaroo clip before," said Hieu. "Honestly, it (the clip) makes audiences feel uncomfortable and willing to turn off the TV."
"What the hell is a leading water purification machine? It must be the leading anger provoking machine in Vietnam ," concluded Hieu.
Many people like Hieu have brought the pressing topic for discussion in social networks. Some members even modified the clip into a ringtone or a short of waiting music for mobile phones. Kangaroo group representative said that the advertisement clip was modified into nearly 40 other clips in social networks or forums.
A "group of people becoming mad due to leading water purification in Vietnam " has been found in the Face book social network with thousands of members. Many members said that the clip deserved to be in the list of communication disasters this year in Vietnam .
A student of Amsterdam high school even remixed the clip to a dance clip. After uploading the remix – clip into Youtube, it created a new Kangaroo fever with more than 100,000 hits.
Recognising the ‘unpleasant feeling' from viewers, the Vietnam Television's Advertisement and Television Services Centre (TVAd) said on VTV website some days later that "it was a regrettable problem" though the clip fit with legal advertisement regulations.
The centre also said they would review and "seriously learn from experience" in their advertisement clips arrangements.
It also promised to refuse customers with advertisements that would cause bad feelings to an audience.
Though receiving many criticisms for monotony of the clip, the advertisement unexpectedly created a high increase in trade name recognition, according advertisement experts.
Kangaroo marketing representative Do To Quyen said that her company wanted to create deep impression with an audience by deciding to advertise its products on TV's golden hours. She said that the clip had healthy content and had not violated values and standards, and met all legal advertisement regulations.
"We actually did not foresee that the clip could have a spreading effect like this. Kangaroo water purification machine has become a famous trademark nation-wide," said Quyen.
Bui Quang Vinh, a marketing teacher of the HCM City Engineering and Technology University , said that with the trade name recognition angle of teasing and repeating tricks, the trademark met its target. Many people, who did not know that Kangaroo is water purification machine on the previous day, now knew and remembered it. "People may not buy the product, but will surely see the ‘pressing issue' it created in the community. And they may be ready to buy the product if it is really a good product," said Vinh./.
