Killed Stalin - saved a pedestrian

In November, social advertising appeared on the Internet to prevent an accident, where the car knocks the car - Stalin, Hitler and Saddam Hussein. More precisely, they are smeared on the windshield with the inscription "Usually the victims are innocent."

This advertisement caused a flurry of reposts and conflicting comments. We talked with Silviu NedelSchi, creative director and specialist in copywriting of the Publicis advertising agency from Bucharest, which completed these layouts by order of the advisory center for the victims of traffic accidents in Romania.

- How did you get the idea to make advertising with dying dictators? Tell us a little about the process of its creation.

One of our employees appeared in one of our employees when he drove the car, and we began to discuss how terrible it should be to become the culprit of an accident with human victims. And the point is not even in the punishment under the law that will follow this, but in the fact that the victim is completely innocent.

The chances that an ordinary pedestrian can please the wheels of a car - a child, a woman or just a tired passerby, crazy home to children is very large. And with the fault for his death or injury, the driver will have to live all his life, and this is the most important thing that you should be afraid when you are driving.

And then we thought about how to convey this simple thought with advertising equipment. It turned out that it was easier to go from the opposite: to show how the driver knocks down the one for whose death he will not feel so guilty. It remains only to understand who it could be. Probably the largest scoundrel on earth is the embodied evil. Of course, we immediately remembered the dictators, because there can be no two opinions on their account. Then we realized how spectacular posters would look with this advertisement, how strong they will impress.

- What reaction did you expect, and what happened in the end? What is the degree of aggression at the audience? Do you have any problems with the Stalinists?

We understood that our idea is quite contradictory and at the same time clinging and well remembered. This is exactly what there should be good advertising. But, to be honest, we did not expect such a viral effect - much more people saw it than we initially expected it. Reviews came from where possible. For example, a guy from Syria sent our layout, only in the role of a downed dictator the current ruler of Syria (Bashar Assad - Publicpost) was depicted on it. So we realized that our advertising also has a political resonance. And this is the biggest praise for us.

There was another case: on the site where our advertisement was posted, one person left a comment that Stalin was actually innocent. There is no doubt that the commentator does not understand history. However, this comment was perhaps the most aggressive. The fact that our advertisement has become a political satire is great, but it is important that its viewers still do not forget why it was created.

Photo: Publicis Buchart

- Did you manage to achieve the desired advertising result?

I think we have achieved even more. Virality made our advertisement recognizable almost everywhere, which means that it will affect not only Romanian drivers. On Russian, for example, too. The thing is that she has a completely universal message.

- How were you inspired?

Most likely, in the niche of social advertising about safe driving, such an approach has not yet been used. And it seems to us quite effective even to reach the most notorious cynics. With this course, we compliment to drivers - their intellectual level, their erudition, we allow ourselves to use black humor, and do not go to be a traveled road, we do not demonstrate, for example, pictures of terrible disasters.

Publicpost recalls that dictators have already been used for advertising purposes: in advertising, they were forced to smile with the help of Photoshop in advertising , and the advertising campaign from mosquitoes, where Stalin, Hitler and Ben Laden's Assembled , was accompanied by a syllable “The end of the terror!”.

Photo: Publicis Buchart