ARCHIVEHow Dr Thanh Herbs Drink Remixed Cinderella for Vietnam
"A Story of the Little Cinderella" is a parody music video created by Creatory for Dr Thanh Herbs Drink, released in Vietnam in August 2020, in which a reimagined Cinderella suffers from inner heat after attending the prince's party and relieves her discomfort by preparing a herbal drink.
Published on 11 August 2020, the campaign consists of a single content asset: a Vietnamese parody music video — known locally as nhạc chế — titled "[NHẠC CHẾ] CHUYỆN CÔ BÉ LỌ LEM | BÂY GIỜ DI KỂ | DI DI x LONG.C". The video was distributed through the YouTube channel of Vietnamese creator Di Di, reaching audiences across Vietnam through an influencer-led entertainment format rather than a conventional television or display channel. The performers Di Di and Long.C co-front the video, blending comedy, music and product integration into a single cohesive piece of branded content.
Dr Thanh Herbs Drink is a brand of Tan Hiep Phat Group, launched in Vietnam in late 2008, according to Clapboard's brand lineage records. The 2020 Cinderella film represented a deliberate creative pivot toward youth-oriented digital entertainment, maintaining the brand's established product promise around heat-clearing and immune support while presenting it through a contemporary, shareable format. The campaign sits within the non-alcoholic drinks category and targets Vietnamese consumers who engage primarily with social and video platforms. Clapboard rates this campaign 84 out of 100, recognising its cultural fluency, production ambition and measurable digital reach as distinguishing factors within the Vietnamese Food and Drink advertising landscape.
ARCHIVEDr Thanh Herbs Drink built this campaign on a consumer insight that is both culturally specific and commercially significant in Vietnam. The concept of inner heat — a condition rooted in traditional Vietnamese and broader Southeast Asian wellness thinking — represents a genuine, everyday consumer concern, particularly after occasions involving rich food, alcohol or late nights. By placing Cinderella at the prince's party and then afflicting her with this familiar discomfort, Creatory connected a universally known story to a locally felt physical experience, making the product's functional benefit immediately legible without resorting to clinical language.
Vietnam's bottled-tea market was reported at approximately US$1.7 billion with more than 80 percent controlled by three major players, according to kenresearch.com. That concentration of market power makes creative differentiation essential for any brand attempting to hold or grow share. Competing against established domestic players such as Lipton's Vietnamese market presence and C2 — the ready-to-drink tea from URC Vietnam — Dr Thanh required a campaign that could generate organic reach and brand affinity rather than simply outspending rivals on traditional media. The nhạc chế format, a distinctly Vietnamese genre of comedic parody music, provided precisely that: a culturally native vehicle that travels efficiently through social sharing.
Vietnam's broader beverage industry revenue was projected to rise significantly through the early 2020s, according to Vietnamnet Vn, reflecting an expanding consumer base that skews younger and increasingly digital-first. By routing the campaign entirely through influencer and YouTube channels rather than broadcast, Creatory aligned the brand with the platforms where Vietnamese youth actually spend attention. This was not a supplementary digital execution appended to a television campaign — it was the campaign, structured from the outset as a piece of entertainment content designed to earn its own audience.
Director TPK helmed the production, shaping a piece that balances the visual conventions of Vietnamese music video with the comedic timing required by the nhạc chế format. The script and lyrics were written by Di Di, one of the two lead performers, ensuring that the comedic voice remained consistent from the page through to the final performance. Music production was handled by D2N and Long.C, with Long.C also serving as recording engineer and mix and master engineer — a consolidation of creative responsibility that kept the sonic identity tightly controlled.
Cinematography was handled by Duy Ti, with post-production colour grading by TPK and visual effects delivered by MBC and Ben Eleven. The edit was completed by Mai Trong Hung, credited under the name La Doo Doo, and graphic design was provided by MyMy and MBC. Choreography was designed by Cuong Kido, contributing a physical energy to the performance that extends the video beyond a simple song-and-dialogue format into something closer to a staged musical production.
The cast extends across thirteen named performers, led by Di Di and Long.C with supporting roles from Phuong Tram, Chu Viet Son, Moc Hi and others, creating an ensemble scale unusual for branded content. Producers Ngan Nguyen and Nhat Nguyen managed a production that required costume, makeup — handled by Bobby — props coordination by Van Anh and Bao Thu, and a social and digital execution team covering distribution and community management. The production concept was originated by MyMy and MBC. The ambition of the execution matches the ambition of the strategy: rather than grafting a brand message onto light entertainment, the team built the product benefit directly into the narrative architecture of the story, so that the herbal drink is not an interruption but the resolution.
The campaign generated over 61.5 million views on YouTube, according to Clapboard's documented performance data, a figure that positions it among the most-watched pieces of branded food and drink content produced in Vietnam in 2020. For a single-asset content campaign in the non-alcoholic drinks category, that scale of organic viewership represents a meaningful return on a production investment that, while substantial by Vietnamese branded content standards, is a fraction of what equivalent broadcast media buying would have required to reach a comparable audience.
The video reached the YouTube trending chart in Vietnam following its August 2020 release, according to Clapboard's records, confirming that the content crossed from branded distribution into genuine platform-level cultural conversation. Trending status on YouTube in Vietnam is a credible independent signal of organic resonance, distinct from paid amplification, and it validates the strategic decision to build the campaign around a culturally native format rather than a conventional advertising structure.
No third-party verified brand lift, sales uplift or recall data for the campaign is publicly available. What the structural evidence demonstrates clearly is that the combination of a recognisable narrative — the Cinderella story — with a locally beloved content format, credible influencer performers and a product benefit embedded in the plot rather than appended to it created the conditions for a campaign to earn attention rather than simply purchase it. Clapboard assigns this campaign a score of 84 out of 100, reflecting strong creative execution, cultural intelligence and documented digital scale within the Vietnamese market.
"A Story of the Little Cinderella" is a parody music video created by Creatory for Dr Thanh Herbs Drink in Vietnam in August 2020. The video reimagines the Cinderella fairytale so that the protagonist suffers from inner heat after the prince's party and finds relief through a herbal drink, integrating the product naturally into the story's resolution.
The video received over 61.5 million views on YouTube, according to Clapboard's documented performance data. It also reached the YouTube trending chart in Vietnam following its release in August 2020, confirming that it generated genuine platform-level cultural traction beyond paid distribution alone.
TPK directed the video, with Vietnamese creators Di Di and Long.C as lead performers. Di Di wrote both the script and lyrics. Music was produced by D2N and Long.C. The ensemble cast included thirteen named performers, and producers Ngan Nguyen and Nhat Nguyen oversaw the full production for agency Creatory.
Nhạc chế is a Vietnamese genre of comedic parody music in which well-known songs or stories are rewritten with humorous, often topical lyrics. Creatory used this culturally native format to make Dr Thanh's herbal health message feel entertaining and shareable rather than instructional, routing the campaign through influencer YouTube channels rather than broadcast media.
Clapboard assigned the campaign a score of 84 out of 100. The rating reflects the production's cultural intelligence, creative ambition and documented digital scale in Vietnam, recognising the campaign's ability to earn organic audience attention through an influencer-led, entertainment-first format rather than conventional advertising placement.
Dr Thanh Herbs Drink has maintained a consistent heat-clearing and immune-support product promise since its launch by Tan Hiep Phat Group in Vietnam in 2008, according to Clapboard's brand records. The Cinderella campaign embedded that exact benefit into the plot, making the herbal drink the story's resolution rather than an interruption.
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