Beyond Sberkassa and Aeroflot: Russian Advertising Today - Dissertation Example

As a phenomenon of post-industrialist society, Russian advertising cannot be considered in a narrow or simplified manner. On the one hand, because of its role as an accelerator of Russian market relations, advertising belongs to the domain of economics. On the other hand, advertisements are distributed by the same channels as mass culture, use the same graphic and expressive means, and, most importantly, address the same mass audience.Only two decades ago, on the eve of perestroika, Moscow was “the city where the notion of the branded product was nonexistent, and the concept of choice - in the marketplace or in the politics - virtually unknown” (Burandt & Giges, 1992, p. 11). But in the 1990s with an introduction of new press legislation, the Westernization of the advertising industry began.

During the last twenty years, the Russian advertising industry made a gigantic step forward, reflecting radical changes in social and economic relations, in technologies and media, and in the sense of personal and group identity. Simultaneously, the Russian audience was not ready to perceive the whole volume of overwhelming advertising. For instance, back in 1995, Steven Gutterman observed that big American and European consumer products companies compete for sales and try to solve the riddle of how to position their goods within Russia.

Nevertheless, they are left wondering if the Russian people are paying attention (Guttenman, 1995).It should also be noted that before around 1990 when the Soviet Union collapsed, TV advertisement was something unknown by the nation. Before that year Soviet citizens were receiving only limited information about Western culture and products. At the same time, despite the Cold War and limited access to information, foreign brands were making their way into the country with the help of smugglers and, later, so-called speculators.

So, some fraction of the Soviet people were aware of the existence, and even owned products manufactured out of the USSR.