Issue #2

Beyond the Boundaries

Yatsenyuk Billboard Campaign Perplexes, Eventually Charms

We're going to surprise a few people - and it certainly wasn't a unanimous opinion among our editorial staff - but we view the famous (or infamous) Arseniy Yatsenyuk billboard campaign as the most effective Ukrainian political advertising to come down the pike in quite some time.

Hold the brickbats. We have our reasons. First, let's examine the ad.
Are the colors drab? Do they remind you of an aging military vehicle? Yes.

Does the stencil typography lack sophistication, even for a political ad? Absoliutely.
Is the candidate's image just a little reminiscent of the sinister Soviet secret police head and Stalin enforcer Lavrentiy Beria? Is the copy - "To Save the Country" - over the top? Correct on all counts.

So, what gives?

For the first few weeks after the billboard began sprouting up, we thought it was an abomination. We hated it. Four weeks into the campaign, we began seeing motives in the madness. Then later, we asked whether this could be a stroke of brilliance.

The reason we named this column Beyond the Boundaries is to illustrate advertising that is either so bad or so good that it garners awareness beyond the ad itself. We believe the Yatsenyuk billboards, ostensibly the precursor to a full-fledged presidential campaign, meet our criteria.

Throughout the history of advertising, there have been ads that people loved to hate, but which elevated the product to market leader status. Primarily, ads of this sort have been in the fast moving consumer goods category.

We don't know if this approach will work for Yatsenyuk, but we can't join the chorus that has called the billboard design a tactical, if not strategic, error. It is memorable and it has been defining early in the campaign.

On our number scale, we give it a B+. That's not bad for a political ad in Ukraine.