Russia’s Sneaky Vodka Ads

The Russian Marketing Blog reports that the Russian Parliament plans to to adopt in the second hearing a new bill that would make it much harder to advertise vodka brands disguised as mineral water or anything else. Advertising of hard liquor in Russia is allowed only at points of sale. So far Russian vodka producers has advertised their brands as:

- mineral water
- candies
- pickled chilies
- pickled cucumbers
- fashion magazines
- ice cubes for bars and restaurants
- fishing rods

The blog says:

Sometimes people got the message, sometimes not. I personally witnessed once an old woman who took a bottle of Yat’ vodka being sure she was buying drinking water (advertising works). Imagine her shock when she boiled that “water” and made tea with it.

One of the most bizarre vodka ads disguised as a brand of cucumbers (it seems to me) is Russskiy Razmer (Russian Size). Its commercial first pictures cornichon (French size), then a medium sized gherkin (German size) and at last a huge garden cucumber (Russian size). “Size Matters!” goes the slogan. What are they talking about?

Russian Marketing Blog