Social advertising in Russian Federation makes Russians better
Social advertizing is not so popular in former Soviet Union as it can seem. Even many years ago social advertizing took an important place in usual life. All Russian citizens who lived in Soviet times remember social posters and television spots where ideas of liability were declared. The following texts were very popular: “Save Soviet nature, it’s our motherhood”, “Matches are not toys for boys” etc. All those social ads were supported by Soviet government and made by governmental institutions. At the moment everything has changed and we can find lots various social advertising which is supported by official government, non-commercial organizations and private persons. Lots of money is spent every week on different social campaigns which are created by Russian media campaigns with video spots, social booklets, mottos etc.
A great deal of international foundations work on the territory of Russian Federation and a great deal of social advertisments from all over the world are available now in Russia. I am sure that it is really great as we have a unique opportunity to use best international experience in the field of social advertizing as our own traditions in this area are very weak but we have lots of thoughts and creative directors who can make all them effective. That’s why different competitions of social advertizing are so popular nowadays in Russian Federation and a lot of professional advertising agencies took an active part in such kind of events and if you enter tube sites you can find many social spots shooted by the leading local companies but usually the visualization of social ideas leaves much to be desired. Still there are quite a lot of popular social ads on tobacco addiction and other problems. But of course, we should always keep in mind about the current situation in Russian Federation and the main problems which the government has to deal with. One of such difficulties is demographic decrease as too many people die in Russia and they understand that they should stimulate families to give more births. As an example of social promotion which concentrated on demographic difficulties we can mention social posters which were placed in Moscow metro with a lady with three girls on her knees. This post is more uncertain rather than gives answers as there is no man on this poster and the woman looks sad.
I think that social advertising in former Soviet Union just starts its way and in the nearest future we will see lots of great examples of TV spots and social posters as well as complicated social campaigns.