Under the sign of the fish grinder

According to Maksym Lazebnyk, the producer of the Kyiv International Advertising Festival, a fish grinder is the emblem of this year’s event because it seems to symbolize one of the patterns of our life. Just imagine how many things you have to grind up to get the desired result.

The same applies to advertising. Most of the participants of the festival have come from the post-Soviet countries: Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Latvia, Estonia, Moldova, Georgia, and Armenia. First- time participants come from Bulgaria, Israel, Serbia, and Slovenia. Ukraine has the largest number of participating agencies — 288.

“The festival usually gathers over 3,000 advertising specialists, who come to Ukraine’s capital from all over the world to exchange experience and learn about new things,” Lazebnyk says. “We hold conferences, workshops, and master classes, where we discuss new trends in the world advertising industry, and ways and prospects for developing Ukrainian advertising. The participants exchange creative ideas and achievements. This year’s program includes such traditional things as television, radio, and print advertising, graphic design, and media projects, as well as a new competition in what is known as corporate video.”

“I want to publish my own newspaper, so I came here to learn how I can best ‘hype’ it,” says Oleksii Chornodubravenko from Sumy. “In my opinion, Ukrainian advertising has made considerable headway in the last while. But, unfortunately, very often it resorts to unfair practices. This applies to drugs and all kinds of bio-additives. I recently was a victim of this. I think it is high time our government revised and changed the advertising law: they should establish liability for false information and ban tobacco and alcohol ads. This especially applies to the mass media. Take any free advertising newspaper and you will find whatever you want — from the phone number of a ‘governess’ to the address of a contract killer.”

Kostiantyn Holovynsky, PR manager of the BigBoard Company, is convinced that the Ukrainian advertising business has already managed to enter the European market, while unethical spin-doctoring — especially in politics — doesn’t just occur in our country. One advertiser told this joke: “It is only in the advertising of politics that there can be less truth than in advertising and politics.”

In trying to amaze consumers with something unusual, ad experts are constantly seeking to invent something new and original. Their results are displayed on the various stands at the festival. One booklet depicts something resembling a crocodile or a dinosaur with the caption: “Advertising honcho REX.” Another picture shows a boy and girl kissing. The caption reads: “Our ad is not for you — do not turn over.” Can you guess what the ad is for? Toothbrushes.