Wednesday, September 19, 2007

Immortal Sovok

The eXile reports on the resurgence of propaganda posters and billboards around Moscow:
Russian Propaganda Posters Are Back With A Vengeance
They also have the exact same design
By Alex Shifrin

It all started last year, with a heavier than usual smattering of non-profit and socially minded advertising appearing in the capital. The smattering soon became a deluge. The amount of public service announcement advertising has now increased to such a point that, last week, while driving on the embankment near the White House, it hit me: PSAs now outweigh regular product and service advertising.

Read on...

Global Voices Online recently reported on some old-school billboards ("Putin's Plan - Russia's Victory!") which are apparently more of a nationwide phenomenon than the Moscow PSA inundation that the eXile's article discusses. Not that such billboards are particularly new - I seem to recall seeing ones a few years ago, ahead of the 2003-04 election cycle, that had a photo of Putin (also on the background of the flag) and a quotation of his, something like "Together we will make Russia united and strong." I have a photo of such a billboard across the street from the central market in Kaluga, but it's on an external hard drive somewhere...

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