Yushchenko Wants You to Be Happy!

Very happy. Watch a public service announcement geared for Yushchenko’s re-election bid.

Voiceover: August 23, 9:30 a.m.
Maidan Nezalezhnosti (Independence Square)
Flag Day

President Viktor Yushchenko will lift the national flag of Ukraine at the main square of the capital.

August 24, 10:00 a.m.
Maidan Nezalezhnosti
The Commander-in-Chief of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, President Viktor Yushchenko, will be hosting the military parade.

August 23-24
Maidan Nezalezhnosti
Join the celebration! Let’s celebrate together! Every one of us is a part of an independent and free Ukraine.

Text: Happy Independence Day!

I greet every Ukrainian with Independence Day!

Sincerely,
Viktor Yushchenko
Signature

There’s nothing unusual about camouflaging political ads as social ads or public service announcements. But who did the “happy faces” at the end of this one? And who put them on bill boards all over Kyiv?

To many people, the dilated eyeballs of the ecstatic young duo may symbolize drug use, outshining Komsomol posters. (View here, here, here, here, and here)

Besides, many young people (except Yushchenko’s kids) may resent such a glowing portrayal of a “free and independent” Ukraine that scores low on economic freedom and depends on the oligarchs’ mercy.

Don’t they have any focus groups in their creative departments?

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