President Trump has sold Trump wine and Trump steaks, and he'd likely be proud of Hanoi's business owners for taking the branding opportunity even further ahead of his upcoming summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in the Vietnamese capital.
Al Jazeera reports that the meeting has turned into a marketing extravaganza — bars are serving Negroni-inspired cocktails called "Peace Negroniations," stores are stocked with T-shirts depicting the leaders' faces, and, because fortune favors the bold, some barbers are offering Trump and Kim-styled haircuts.
Officials are unsure of just how much the negotiations will benefit Hanoi and Vietnam as a whole in strict financial figures, but Phuong Hoa Nguyen, a deputy director at Vietnam's Ministry of Culture, Sport, and Tourism, said that the talks will be "invaluable" for the country's economic future no matter what.
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"This is a great opportunity to promote Vietnam as an attractive and safe destination for tourism and investment," Nguyen told Al Jazeera.
The choice of Vietnam as the host country for the talks is steeped in historical symbolism — last July, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo directed comments toward Kim about how North Korea could one day follow in Vietnam's footsteps as a post-communist economy.
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