Is Russia Falling to the SJWs Tool? Activists Try to Classify Gay- Friendly Viral Video As Hate Speech
He missed the election and everything went bad. The summary of the video, which began to spread on the Russian segment of social networks last weekend and is spreading until now. It's only three minutes long but already has a total of several million views.
"Who on Earth is this?" "In fact, I'm a foster gay!"
One episode shows a gay person settling in the same apartment. And a military conscription in the pre-retirement age, uncontrolled inflation, constant charges in the child's school, and so on. Actor Sergey Borunov, who played the main character, gets scared and realizes that he definitely should have voted.
It's clear, social advertising in a malicious video format caused a discussion. Judging by the Internet comments, some people liked it, saying that it's witty and well-performed, but some people saw article 282 of the Criminal Code, incitement of hatred towards gay people. It sounds strange, but there were such critics. What's interesting is that this isn't the only such video, there are several.
Anastasiya Yefimova saw them.
- Nastya, good evening.
- Hello!
- The rest seem not to have hyped up.
- It seems like it's about weak spots of certain viewers that the authors of this video consciously hurt. They wanted to smile, motivate and remind about the election day. But, according to the video's authors, they certainly didn't plan to offend anyone.
Svetlana Galka, actress: "I think that if people have a sense of humor, they wouldn't get offended. We did laugh at the facts that Russians are slow starters and that they're lazy. We, Russians, are like this. Somehow this video managed to mobilize such a big number of people, and those I know started to write me personally, saying: "Sveta, we'll go to the election".
It seems to have worked, judging by the speed at which the video is being spread, as millions of people have already heard the plea to behave responsibly, which was the authors' intention. But there were also those who didn't like the video at all. Here's one of the comments. "Who are these donkeys without any sense of humor?"
Yuliya Vityazeva, journalist: "The videos are great, and the reaction in social networks proves it. Overall, it's positive. What about the ridiculed things, people ridiculed the fears which are imposed on us by those who encourage not to vote. The video got it in one, and it very wittily trolled, let's say, all those who were offended by it".
The most interesting is who they were and why it happened. Some of them were angry about the poor state of the prefab apartment, though we confirm that the video was shot at the Stalinist-style apartment. Others didn't like the main character's bald head and bad physical shape. But they're just laying the blame at someone else's door. But other things became the main irritant, as this video ridiculed the horror stories that some officials use to scare people before the election. It's about pseudo-militarism, that's why a bearded enlistment officer appears on the doorstep, seemingly inevitable inflation, that's why the son asks four million to pay for the school's security, and, of course, notorious gay-bashing, a set of imposed ideas that become the main character's bad dream and remind him of how important it is to express one's opinion and come to the election.
Abbas Gallyamov, political scientist: "An ad campaign can't be based on such a video, however genius it might be. A comprehensive approach is very important, as well as the systematic one, when you use all possible communication means, from banners and calls to TV advertising, including videos on the Internet".
To be precise, there are three such videos. The authors of the second one tell about a pregnant woman that begs the taxi driver not to arrive late but not at the hospital, but at a voting station. The authors of the third one decided that it's time to talk seriously one month before the election.
- Wait, are you 18?
- Of course, I'm an adult.
- Did you vote today?
- No, why?
- Then what kind of an adult are you?
In this case, the authors don't hide their names. It was made by a creative agency from Kirov. They claim that there was no order from above.
Andrei Dmitriev, producer of the video: "We started talking about young people and their attitude towards the election. As many of our employees are young. They were telling about their friends and people they know and came to a problem of the election being of no interest to young people. They started with a "mature decision" and what it means to be an adult. That's how we came up with the idea of this video".
People tried to blame them for propaganda as well. The Internet detectives started looking for the authors. All they found was the address of the bar where the video was shot and the name of the main character, a local beauty salon employee, who participated in the audition like other candidates. Well, there was no trick, only civil responsibility and a reminder that the election will take place on March 18.
For those who like writing immature comments, one of the videos specifies: "adults only."
- Anastasiya Yefimova told us why we should vote.