Beware! Social advertising!

Several days ago the organizers of the 2nd National Public Advertising Festival, scheduled to open on Nov. 3 at Ukraine House, presented the festival’s new emblem and concept. Even without them, many people are convinced that the project will attract unprecedented public interest. Lately, Kyiv residents have been fond of discussing billboards ranging from the good old “My Kyiv” to the hair-raising “Mom, Why Am I a Freak?”

Last year the 1st National Social Advertising Festival gathered 476 participants. The stands at Kyiv’s Cinema House displayed 617 works from which the jury selected 63 as worthy examples of socially-oriented public advertising. Festival organizers, however, insist that the main achievement is that this year’s event will be on an even larger scale. The especially gratifying news is that Kyiv’s oligarchs are willing to invest in this type of advertising. This has produced a special nomination called “Complex Socially-Oriented Campaigns.”

Fewer works are expected to be submitted this year. Last year social services and designers submitted pieces that had taken them four or five years to create. But the organizers are sure that with fewer works on display the quality of the exhibit will improve. “Usually, works we all know are displayed during festivals. Eighty percent of our submissions are completely new products,” says Mykhailo Staroshchuk, chairman of the Advertisers’ Union of Ukraine.

All the participants’ works are entered in a single database. The festival organizers’ main objective is to reach an agreement with the Outdoor Advertising Association of Ukraine about installing the best works. Staroshchuk is confident that the association will meet them halfway: “This kind of cooperation benefits them; they can use our social ads to fill in their billboard gaps.”

Today, the advertisers’ association and social workers are far more concerned about another issue that has evolved from the growing popularity of social advertising: who is supposed to supervise content? The last campaign got a mixed reception from the public, and all the experts agreed that it was ill-considered, to put it mildly.

There are no social advertising norms and standards. So, one of the festival organizers’ top priorities is to help ensure that a special commission is created to monitor the content of social advertising, companies that produce alcoholic beverages, and tobacco companies, which must donate five percent of their revenues to social advertising.

Staroshchuk is positive that advertising is art and must be handled by professionals: “Right now, like never before, the state needs quality advertising. This is part of the national idea. I would even say that it is a mouthpiece of ideology. Yet no one actually assumes any responsibility for it.

“I know a case where ill-considered advertising led to a woman’s confinement in a psychiatric hospital. A married couple, both over 40, could not have children, and then suddenly the woman got pregnant and delivered a boy with Down’s syndrome. Then she spotted a billboard that said, “Why Am I a Freak?” She lost her sanity. True, these types of billboards are being actively removed from the city streets, but who is responsible for this?”

The festival organizers also propose that the name of the designer or sponsoring company be clearly indicated. This is expected to increase the sense of responsibility and attract more sponsors. Another important question is: who will design this social advertising? Staroshchuk says there are many experts in Ukraine, but getting them involved in social advertising is easier said than done. Designers have to make billboards practically free of charge, whereas at current rates this work costs between one and three thousand dollars apiece.

There is a way out. “We could place social advertising in the form of compact posters. This would cost two or three times less than billboards, and there would be more space. Also, social advertising must involve psychologists, who can analyze its effect on people. Finally, you have to find the right site,” says Staroshchuk.

The Institute for the Development of Family and Youth recently carried out a study of people’s attitudes to social advertising. According to the institute director, Lidiia Leontieva, the survey shows that the shocking advertising campaign should have been more discreet.

There are some positive aspects. Ukrainians trust social advertising and accept it more readily than commercial ads. Leontieva says that the two most positive posters were “Hold Your Father’s Hand Tighter” and “You Can’t Leave Him.”

Nadia Ternopolska, the house mother/instructor of a family-type children’s home, who together with her husband has been raising eight adopted children for four years, is certain that she would have decided to adopt children much earlier if social advertising had been as widespread as it is today: “We didn’t know whom to consult, what documents are required. Now people often visit us and ask how they can go about adopting children. I believe it is our joint task to inform society about such things. Even if you cannot adopt 10 children at once, at least one child will be lucky.”

Svitlana Tolstoukhova, director of the State Service for Children, Family, and Youth, supports Ternopolska’s idea and says that Ukraine is in for another social advertising boom. The all-Ukrainian advertising and information campaign “Every Child Has a Right to a Family” will start before the festival opening. “Soon television ads and programs will be broadcast in all the regions of the country. There will also be outdoor advertising, posters, and brochures, and maybe seminars and special training courses. All these measures are aimed at strengthening family and parental responsibility, and preventing violence and juvenile drug addiction.”

Statistics show that in the last while the number of families wishing to adopt children has increased by 20 percent. One reason is the enactment of simplified adoption procedures and changes to the legal framework.

Whatever its shortcomings, one should not belittle the impact of Ukrainian social advertising. In many countries, advertising is designed to have shock value. After 9/11 Americans began seeing posters that said “Buying drugs helps terrorists.” Maybe our young Ukrainian state is not ready for shocking slogans that are quietly vanishing from our city streets. Soon they will be replaced by a new kind of advertising. A council tasked with monitoring advertising and assuming responsibility for its quality and content is also a remote possibility.