Since I
first began studying and doing research in the Former Soviet Union in 1991,
I have been fascinated with the transformation of the media in this area
of the world. In particular, advertising has gone from non-existent
in the 1980's, to a constant presence in the lives of contemporary Ukrainians.
Below are a selection of photographs of outdoor advertisements I have collected
over the last few years. Scholars and students interested in my collection
of magazine and other advertising in Ukraine can contact me by email.
I found this campaign for Dirol chewing gum, which ran in 2000, fascinating. It focused on the performer Andrej Danylko, whose drag alter ego, Verka Serdjuchka remains a hugely popular comic character. While Verka speaks a stigmatized form of Ukrainian, plays with gender categories, and is generally "over the top," in this series of print and television ads Danylko comes across as a calm, masculine speaker of "good" Ukrainian. Here, he is quoted saying "I chew Dirol simply because it's the best for me."
This is probably my favorite ad of all I have seen over the years. Although I unfortunately snapped this picture after the billboard was already coming down, the key elements of this ad for Prima cigarettes remain. I like this ad for the same reason that focus groups who saw it disliked it - namely the ambiguity built into the catch phrase "We've Changed!" In almost every group I interviewed, at least one person would say - "What does that mean? Has the cigarette changed, or the people in the car, or what?" It is exactly this ambiguity which played a role in the rebranding of Prima, once heavily associated with the Soviet period, as a post-Soviet, Western-style brand.
T
L&M is marketed as a youthful, hip cigarette brand. This 2001 campaign used the tag line "The aroma unites you with the world!" A newer version of the campaign shows young smokers from major cities around the world (Moscow, Singapore, Budapest) with catch phrases like "Singapore is on the line [connected] with you!" This theme of consumption, particularly of cigarettes, as heavily connected to the idea of a new "international" Ukraine appears in a number of different ad campaigns.
Here is another example of this trend in an ad for Next cigarettes, which offers smokers "New perspectives" or "New prospects" depending on how you interpret the double-meaning of the word "perspetyvy."
While Ukrainian manufactured goods have been swamped by imports, locally-produced food products have made a strong comeback in the past five years. Based on my interviews with advertisers and consumers, many consumers think of these goods as "more natural," "cleaner" and "healthier." Here ads for Ukrainian milk products decorate a small grocery store. The one on the right bears the slogan "To your Health!"
This trend is especially visible in alcohol advertising, and is further reflected in the current popularity of unpasturized "natural" beers. Vodka advertising is also extremely competitive, and companies have begun producing a range of special vodkas (such as vodka made from honey) as well as flavored vodka's such as Mjakov's cranberry vodka, advertised below:
An ad for Rosava tires takes the "homegrown" idea in an interesting direction with the phrase "Our tires for our roads," meaning that you need especially strong tires to handle rough Ukrainian roads. At the same time, the brand name Rosava is written in Latin letters. By using Latin script or even English labeling advertisers tap into Soviet-era experiences, when goods made for export were of higher quality. Many of the consumers I spoke with acknowledged that they still make this association, even though they have often been disappointed with the quality of foreign goods.
A relatively recent trend in Ukrainian advertising is the political advertisement. Here a billboard promotes President Kuchma's spring 2003 intitiative for a bicameral Ukrainian legislature with the slogan "Do you want to live like they do in Europe? Then support responsible government!"
