Social advertising in Russia makes people better
Social promotion is not so popular in former Soviet Union as it may seem. Even in 1980s social promotion took an important place in usual life. All Russians who lived in those years remember social booklets and video spots where ideas of responsibility were declared. The following mottos were so much popular: “Save Soviet nature, it’s our motherhood”, “Matches are not toys for children” etc. All these social advertisments were sponsored by the government and created by official institutions. At the moment everything has changed and we may find lots various social advertising which is supported by Russian government, non-commercial organizations and private persons. Lots of money is spent every year on different social campaigns which are supported by popular media campaigns with movie spots, social booklets, mottos etc.
Many international non-commercial companies work on the territory of Russia and lots of social ads from different countries are available now in Russia. I am sure that it is really good as we have a unique chance to use best international experience in the field of social promotion as our own traditions in this area are very weak but we have lots of thoughts and creative directors who can make all them true. That’s why different contests of social advertizing are so popular now in former Soviet Union and lots of professional advertising firms took an active part in such kind of competitions and if you enter YouTube you can find many social spots shooted by the leading local firms but usually the visualization of social problems leaves much to be desired. Still there are quite a lot of interesting social videos on tobacco addiction and other issues. But certainly, we should always remember about the current situation in Russian Federation and the main difficulties which the government has to solve. One of such problems is demographic decrease as too many people die in former Soviet Union and they know that they should force families to give more births. As an example of social advertizing which concentrated on demographic issues we can state on social posters which were placed in Moscow metro with a lady with three boys on her knees. This post gives more questions rather than gives answers as there is no guy on this poster and the woman looks disappointed.
I think that social advertizing in Russia 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.