Semi-Mobile Advertising: Just Do It

The disabled have a tough gig here in Vietnam. As if being mutilated in a war defending your country from an overwhelminly superior Western invader weren’t enough (Communist Party censors please take notice — I’m an equal-opportunity maligner of political systems!), there’s the fact that the Vietnamese government see no particular need for providing disabled people — veterans or otherwise — with financial assistance – though apparently they’ve got plenty of walking-around money for things like fighter jets and submarine bases. And those who merely had their legs blown into smithereens by hopped-up, trigger-happy U.S. Marines were the lucky ones; Agent Orange fucks up you and your progeny for four generations. No legs? Tough shit. You’re on your own. You’d better have either 1) a rich uncle or 2) mad begging skillz. (“Oh and by the way, thanks for the Revolution and all that.”) They don’t even have real wheelchairs here. Instead, there’s umpteen squillion Vietnamese people pushing themselves around the country in giant tricycles with pump-action steering wheels, like something out of a Buster Keaton film. So not only are they non-pedestrian, they’ve been turned into rolling punchlines.

One thing about the Vietnamese, though: they’re a resourceful bunch. Take this hombre, for example. Can he work? Not so much. Can he sell lottery tickets? Like nobody’s business. But the crown jewel of his business portfolio, the butter on his bread, the pièce de résistance of his peripatentic office environment? Advertising, thank you very much — on the back of his wheeltricycle. Clearly this is a man of the 21st century. Note also that not only is he advertising for Rainbow Divers, who I’m willing to bet pay a premium for this kind of placement, but he also appears to be licensed. The branding team at Nike should be all over this — forget the irony, this guy’s a rolling poster boy for “Just Do It .” Ladies and gentlemen, I give you Vietnam.