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Asian Angle | Vietnam’s anti-drug police are speaking Gen Z, and it’s working
Ho Chi Minh City’s police have found a way to wrap dry state messaging in viral humour, mirroring China’s digital playbook
The unit seems to be testing a new propaganda style: using humour to create a friendlier, more familiar voice. Research on political humour shows that this tone can make audiences more open to later messages they might otherwise resist.
A closer look at the page reveals a simple formula: take an everyday moment, flip it into a meme and land on an anti-drug punchline. One viral post of a faux wedding proposal photo gained 108,000 reactions, 3,300 comments and 1,300 shares. It showed a groom lifting a laptop whose screen read, “Shall we turn in drug offenders together?”
This same structure is then repeated. For instance, a break-up post becomes: “Why be sad and do drugs when prison is a hundred times sadder?” A night out becomes: “a familiar drift from drinks to karaoke and a drug-fuelled club to jail”.