It's happy time for advertising departments of TV stations. Politicians of all colors occupied air time with their ads. The only chance to escape them is to watch Cartoon Network.
The campaign is very
aggressive, and breaks every rule in the book – particularly, the
rule of not attacking the opponent. The ruling Party of the Regions’
ads are all about their political rivals. At some point they even
contain recognizable silhouettes of Yulia Tymoshenko, the jailed
ex-prime minister, and Viktor Yushchenko, the former pathetic
president, while the narrator is saying “…corrupt and incapable
government.”
“Everything was worse than one could
imagine,” the same narrator says, referring to the previous
government, elected after the 2004 Orange Revolution, voicing over a
video of poor and unhappy elder people walking through what looks
like a destitute village. Soon the narrator proudly informs that now
“the ruin,” left by the predecessors, “has been overcome” due
to Viktor Yanukovych and the Regions’ hard work.
The whole
“ruin is overcome” theme has quickly become a popular meme among
the Ukrainian Internet users. The jokes tend to end with the phrase
“Can we please have our ruin back?”
The promos of the
Regions’ main opponent, United
Opposition “Batkivshchyna”, are even more aggressive, but in a very different way.
Their series of promos capture the saddest and most tragic
situations, like a deadly car accident, and link it to the current
government.
The one that can literally squeeze tears out of
you is picturing a lonely old lady, a typical Ukrainian babushka with
a most angelic facial expression, being kicked out of her village
house because somebody else now owns her land as a result of fraud.
So the old lady silently clears up her small house, patches an old
stove with clay for the last time and steps out of house wearing a
black shawl and holding an icon to face workers who came to demolish
her hut.
If you haven’t seen this ad, by this moment you’ll be
sobbing out loud.
After the old lady is out of the house,
another man, looking poor and sympathetic, gives a speech about how
the government does nothing for the “common people.” Tragic and
impressive music follows.
What startles the viewer from a
blurry, semi-hypnotized condition when you’re almost ready to believe
the touching ad, is that the poor man who gives a fiery speech
actually looks like a copy of those unfortunate people pictured in
the Party of Regions’ promo.
The same type of fellows,
looking ragged and old, also feature in the Communists Party promos.
Those, however, are strict and straightforward. “Land is sold
out… buses run rarely,” says the pushy narrator, listing the
misfortunes people go through.
This “poor elder man” type
would probably go fine with the voters had it not be so over-used.
But while it is just moving from promo to promo like some kind of an
advertising nomad, it looks nothing but cheap.
But I am still
crying over Batkivshyna’s babushka.
Kyiv Post staff writer Olga Rudenko can be reached at [email protected].
