All in the execution?

Posted by Rob Walker on March 27, 2007
Posted Under: Advertising

The problem: With utility rates rising sharply in the Ukraine, many people there have simply stopped paying their utility bills.

Solution: An ad campaign. With attitude.

How much attitude? Well, the main figure used in the billboards and television ads was Joseph Stalin, “a man whom many Ukrainians blame for killing one-third of the country’s population during the famine in the 1930s,” the Associated Press notes.

In the television ad, Stalin is shown in grainy black-and-white footage being applauded by hundreds of party members as a dubbed-over voice says: “Those who don’t pay for their heat should be punished!”

Okay, okay. That’s actually too much attitude. The campaign has been called off.

Further diversion may be found at MKTG Tumblr, and the Consumed Facebook page.

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