Landscape

The landscape is defined as everything you can see when you look across an area of land, for example, hills, rivers, buildings, trees, and plants. Many psychologists have pointed out that interacting with nature restores directed attention and improves performance in attention- and memory-related tasks (Hartmann and Apaolaza, 2013). In this research, two case studies employed effectively the sense of natural beauty to make an impression on the audience.

Firstly, in the “Stand tall Vietnam” TVC of Vinamilk, the opening is a combination of six different special country landscapes filled with different meanings. There is a saying that

“Vietnam has golden forest and silver ocean” which refers to three-quarter of the area covered by mountains and the long coastline of the country. Therefore, to demonstrate the personality of Vietnamese nature, it has to be the beach, mountain or river (Figures 18 and 19).

Figure 18. Ninh Binh in the early morning.

It is a famous tourist place which is a great combination of river and mountains (Stand tall Vietnam TVC, Vinamilk)

Without the caption, it is still easy for audiences to define those places and their names through special hints. For example, only in the northern mountain areas that people could build farms in the middle of high mountains (Figure 19). And the building in Figure 20 is a symbol of Ho Chi Minh City. Moreover, many of them are special because of their profound connection with national pride. The attractions appearing in the TVC, for example, Ha Long bay, Hoan Kiem lake, the ancient capital Hue, and the northernmost Lung Cu are not only famous with local people but also international friends. They represent the nature, tradition, history, development, and freedom

of the country. In other words, Vinalmilk tried to cover all elements defining the meaning of

“nation”.

Figure 20. The scene of Bitexco building, Ho Chi Minh City.

It is a symbol of industrial achievement (Stand tall Vietnam TVC, Vinamilk) Figure 19. Farms locates among mountain refers to the agriculture of Vietnam (Stand tall

Vietnam TVC, Vinamilk)

Moreover, conducting a high-angle shot help to impress people with special angles which they could not easily archive from a normal point of view. Showing something people are already familiar with but by an impressive and unique technique could, therefore, quickly catches their eyes and draw their attention into a story. In fact, most of the landscape scenes in this TVC are filmed from above to represent the high and mighty of the country which is merged with the campaign’s message: “40 years stand tall Vietnam”. Additionally, even though there are numbers of unidentified places in Vinamilk TVC, they are recognizable by regional characteristics.

Therefore, they can restore people’s memory and patriotic emotion – the feeling of closeness.

Figure 21. An un-known bridge from above (Stand tall Vietnam TVC, Vinamilk)

Unlike Vinamilk, as Viettel’s intention in this campaign is showing off the power of next-generation wireless mobile telecommunications technology - 4G, they focus on how to figure the wireless mobile network in the most convincing and touching approach. To illustrate this idea, they held a cross country performance in which the artists would stay in different locations and were connected by 4G devices. Therefore, the landscapes used in the TVC are not only about celebrating the country’s beauty but about drawing 4G’s coverage all over Vietnam. The TVC is filmed mostly at four identified locations: Son La, Ha Noi, Binh Thuan, and Ho Chi Minh. Each

location has its own meaning and could represent different parts of Vietnam geography clearly.

The map in Figure 22 could help to visualize their locations.

Repeatedly, both Ho Chi Minh - the biggest city in the southern Vietnam and Ha Noi city - the biggest city in the northern were shown in Viettel TVC. In this case, the link built by the music performance emphasizes the inseparable connection between two cities representing for national solidarity, the core social foundation of a communist country (Young, 2019). It coincides with the tagline of Viettel 4G campaign: When technology is going ahead, no one would be left behind.

Figure 22. Filming locations in Vietnam oi! TVC, Viettel

The third landscape used in the TVC is Binh Thuan which has the most beautiful coastline and also top beautiful beaches in Vietnam. As a coastal province, the large white sandbank is the

most significant and attractive feature of this land. Ever since the territorial water tension in the South China Sea among Vietnam and other neighbors in 2014, coastline and the island’s safety has become the delicate issue, drawn society’s concern. Back to the case of Vinamilk, it could be seen that the image of the sea, the beach also appeared with the same meaning.

Figure 23. Mui ne sand bank in Binh Thuan (Vietnam oi! TVC, viettel)

The next is Son La, a northern border province covered by high mountains and forest accounting for 85% of total land area (Sonla.gov.vn, 2017). With the other two neighbors, Son La is as seen as the roof of northern of Vietnam with the biggest plateau – Moc Chau plateau, and hundreds of natural beauty sides (Sonla.gov.vn, 2017). The geographical specialty that contributes strongly to the development of tourism and promotes Son la to become the tourist center of the Northern, on the other hand, limits the industrial, educational and technological development of this place. With the cultural diversity coming from 12 ethnic groups living scattered in the highlands, building and maintaining the community connection is the priority.

Figure 24. A tea farm in Moc Chau plateau, Son La (Vietnam oi! TVC, Viettel)

Putting all of those explanations together, it is easy to see the difference between two case studies. Vinamilk focuses on celebrating the mighty proud beauty with a collection of cross country attractions. Meanwhile, Viettel tries to create a geographical connection from the north to the south, from the mountain border to the coastal area.