Edelman unfolds personal stories in Words of a Generation: Vietnam short film series

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Vietnam.jpgEdelman’s representative office in Vietnam AVC Edelman has released of Words of a Generation: Vietnam, a series of seven films that showcases interviews with ten members of the generation born in Vietnam between 1975 and 1986.

Referred to as the “Doi Moi” generation, the participants are a part of the first generation born after the Vietnam War, which ended in 1975 and who grew up affected by Vietnam’s “Doi Moi” reforms, which began in 1986. The interviews were conducted in five different cities over a one-month period.

Vietnam2.jpgAmanda Mooney, senior manager at Edelman and Words of a Generation’s creator, producer and researcher, said, “As an outsider, it was an important and rare opportunity to be invited into the homes of our participants. Hearing their stories, getting a chance to understand their past and present lives and talking over meals with their families, two things were very clear. First, as the first generation born in peace, their happiness is fragile. However, despite this, their determination is unwaveringly strong.”

Words of a Generation refuses to treat people as mere consumers or numbers and instead takes the view that there is no better way to truly understand a generation than to step into their lives and connect with them on the most personal of levels. Edelman has released films from China, Singapore, Malaysia and Vietnam and is in the process of travelling to Indonesia and India to search for real insights that not only reveal the differences between individuals and generations, but the universal similarities that cut across all boundaries.

Vietnam3.jpgCornelia Kunze, vice chairman, Edelman Asia Pacific, Middle East & Africa, said, “Edelman understands that every great campaign comes from deep insights. However, we almost always draw our insights about rapid economic development from headlines, statistics or data points, and we don’t get to feel what it was like to experience and live through it. By committing this series to video, we allow these insights to be seen and heard. We wanted to make the entire series available online so that anyone from any country can step into the personal words of people who feel deeply and strongly about what influences them, and how they can influence change themselves.”

The “Doi Moi” generation represents a generation who grew up and witnessed the greatest changes Vietnam has ever known: from struggling to recover from war, to a period of harsh subsidies, to a globalized economy. As the country’s openness has occurred at a time in their lives when they are best positioned to take advantage of it, the influx of change has inspired ambition, determination, a thirst to learn, to experience, make mistakes and to truly transform Vietnam into what the world sees today.

Bui Ngoc Anh, managing director of AVC Edelman, said, “Working on Words of a Generation is a profound opportunity for AVC Edelman and the industry to better understand the Vietnamese people. Our reactions to the films ranged from sympathy, amazement and complete agreement with what our participants have shared. Their memories and realities touched our hearts and reminded us of the importance of reaching out, paying attention and truly understanding Vietnam as individuals rather than just consumers.”

Words of a Generation: Vietnam provides wide-ranging insights into the “Doi Moi” generation. It tells the story of a long-gone history, heartfelt contemporary concerns, great optimism for the future and the love the participants have for their country: “I want the whole world to know that Vietnam has changed so, so much after the war. The economy is on the rise and up to world’s speed. Vietnam is a land of peace now, a land that I love.” – Participant, born 1983.