Original article in Ukrainian by Artem Bidenko for UP
In social sciences, as well as in mathematics, there are some particular starting points and axioms, one of which consists in the significance of interest for the evolution of mankind. In particular, it is the significance of public (social) interest as social relationships and realities, which are equally important for all the citizens and for different strata of society.
It has long been assumed in political science that public interest is not merely a sum total of personal interests. Quite the contrary, for public interest is very often at variance with one’s own wishes.
Let us demonstrate this with a mere example: every individual strives for raising more and more money without having to share it with anybody. And public interest suggests that taxes are to be imposed upon people, thus restricting the uncontrolled increase in riches and also allotting the money for social needs.
It might seem that there are also quite opposite examples: one’s own security adds up to a state security. But for all that, personal interest stimulates one to transform his house into a mansion, whereas public interest stimulates into maintaining an army or military-industrial complex etc. In other words, public interest may always be considered as a phenomenon which, in contrast to the sum total of individual interests, is more polysemic.
Advertising is an asocial activity if we are to judge from the point of view of every single individual. None of us has a need for advertising, it gets on our nerves forcing us to act this or that way.
However, from the standpoint of state economy development, advertising is undoubtedly a powerful driving force. It favours the growth of sound competition, redistribution of wealth and is a source of increasing local and state budgets etc.
So, no matter how severely advertising is criticized, the broad experience of the leading European countries suggests that advertising will stay with us for a good long while. You see, advertising existed even in the times of the USSR: “Fly with Aeroflot” or “Buy Sportloto lottery-tickets”.
Social advertising, however, is a much more complicated thing to deal with. It has long been agreed in the West that social advertising is an asocial phenomenon, excuse the tautology.
 |
In other words, an average individual does not have any need for social advertising: it gets on our nerves, makes us think deep about grave matters of our lives, and do the things we have no intention to do (give up smoking, fasten safety belts etc.).
Moreover, European standards for social advertising make it clear that such an advertising can sometimes be rather displeasing: rude, bloody and undisguised. Nothing but “ugh!”. However, from the point of view of public interest, such advertising is extremely useful and, what is more, efficient.
For instance, the anti-smoking advertising campaign in California resulted in three times as many Californians giving up smoking compared to the US average.
The US Campaign Against Underage Drinking resulted in nearly 76,000 phone calls with a request to provide information about the local reference centers: 62% of those who phoned, took further steps on the matter.
Do you really think that social advertising abroad is mild and tender? You are wrong. The thing to be considered as more displeasing could only be the CNN coverage of war in Iraq.
For instance, the advertisement aimed at making the British fasten their safety belts (even at the back seats of their cars) is followed by a picture of a broken skull, whereas the antidrug campaign runs a series of commercials and videos with ugly human faces, frightful stories, and even (!) with the participation of children, who happen to involuntarily fall victims of drug addicts.
There is no doubt that a great deal of discontent is also raised abroad because of such advertising, especially in those organizations devoted to morality or children’s issues etc.
It would only be enough to mention what a splash was made when the Benetton company launched a social advertisement containing the pictures of the people sentenced to death, or a photograph of a soldier, lying in a puddle of blood during the war in Yugoslavia.
 |
Still, this very advertisement has been honoured by many organizations for the protection of human rights as an important issue for the society development.
It is necessary to stress that advertising represents a special kind of communication with its own laws. This is especially to deal with the billboard and outdoor advertising, which is most capable of getting through to the target group (for one cannot switch from one channel to another, turn the TV off or simply throw the ad away): the time of contemplation is up to 7 seconds, within which a maximum of information should be delivered to the potential consumer.
Therefore, it is not only essential to point to laconic brevity, preciseness and graphical simplicity, but also to mind the use of hyperboles, metaphors, slogans etc. Advertising is a type of communication which stands very close to a fable.
It is very unlikely that somebody would actually think it possible to satisfy one’s appetite on a bar of chocolate or that a bottle of beer is the only thing able to join your jolly crowd together. To tell the truth, though, there are people who strongly believe every single word they hear. And the number of such people is dramatically increasing.
However, this does not mean that we are gradually being americanized and that it is very soon to happen that we stop rocking with laughter when we hear stories about a company which was once filed a claim for not having placed a warning "Caution: Contents may be hot." on its hamburgers.
Indeed, the key problem of advertising consists in the fact that many people are deprived of creative thinking, and it is rather hard for them to understand that the communication of advertising is the communication of exaggeration.
It is absolutely true when speaking about social advertising. For you will not always get into a car accident, if you do not fasten your safety belts. And you will not always kill a person, being in a state of alcoholic intoxication. But when something is being advertised, there is not enough time to produce clear-cut explanations of every individual case. Advertising is aimed at warning against a certain situation in whole. Briefly, clearly and simply.
And now, taking it all into consideration, we shall briefly mention the recent anti-drug campaign called “Life free from drugs”, which has already created a stir in Kyiv.
Firstly, advertising is not capable of treating people for drug addiction. There are certain therapists, specialized government bodies, and thousands of social workers for that purpose.
Advertising may either force all these people to do what they are supposed to do and not to steal grants for the unknown campaigns, or to stop the increase in a number of drug addicts.
The black-and-white billboards filling the streets of the city are actually aimed at breaking the stereotypes, which promote a heroic image of drugs among the young people.
And all those bursts of indignation coming from the social organizations (which are in fact supposed to struggle against the drug abuse) testify that the strangers, who have broken into their image field, are absolutely unwanted. Especially the strangers, who make them do their job.
Secondly, such social advertising is only directed at public interest. Of course, there are people who tend to misinterpret this series of advertisements and are prone to think that it has intentionally been created with a purpose to plunge them into gloom and spoil their lives in general. But they are wrong.
The above mentioned social advertisements are abstract and hyperbolized to the maximum. The key task of these is to stop the increase in drug addiction throughout Ukraine.
Today 3% of the Ukrainian population is officially registered in narcological dispensaries. This number is steadily growing. It seems that social advertising is so far the only means to somehow control this epidemic.
The point, of course, lies in effective social advertising, which unfortunately may not be liked by the vast majority of people. However, this will neither lessen its significance, nor decrease its efficiency.
 |
Thirdly, this series of advertisements, even though it is black-and-white, is in no way to be treated as “good-or-bad” from the Soviet standpoint. It cannot be criticized just because somebody is too high in his/her moral principles to see a word “freak” in the street of the city, or because somebody misinterprets the contents of the advertisement, believing that everybody does the same.
High emphasis is to be placed on a whole lot of other things: a display of civic position, provoking public discussions, appeals to different government bodies etc. Even if such advertising was highly immoral, thereby drawing the attention of corresponding ministries and making them do their job, its public benefit would be enormous.
Nobody has ever died because one’s own moral principles were hurt. Plenty of people die of being addicted to drugs. Moralists, this is a thing for you to consider.
Artem Bidenko, the head of the Coordinating Board of Ukrainian Outdoor Advertising Association, a political scientist, the joint proprietor of RuBi Consulting company.
