Fishy juice

The idea of new prints of Tropicana juices is to introduce new line of juices “fortified” by vitamins, minerals, fiber and other healthy stuff. Orange shaped as a fish is supposed to demonstrate Tropicana contains a lot of Omega-3 exactly like fish. Unfortunately consumers are not so sophisticated at building complex association chains. The first idea that pops up in my mind is “Juices with the taste of fish?” Bizarre.

Just say No

Why actually "No!"? Combs are great for skull massage.

This old Soviet poster originally known for it's "Say no to vodka" message is one of the most popular objects for Photoshop abuse.

Orion mushrooms

"When you eat mushrooms, it's so much fun". You should only know your limits. Aftereffects could be very serious.

Orion Choco Boy is a kind of cookie shaped like a mushroom, for those who don't know.

iVAN

Publishing house C-Media launches a new magazine iVAN that is the name of its main protagonist Ivan (pronounced ee-vah-n) spelled to make it look iPodingly stylish. Ivan is a bold man with an imperial who is radiating success and confidence. He is 35, male, likes good gadgets but is not a specialist in technology. He decides to make his old dream true – find the best gadgets, cars, hi-fis, cars and write about what he finds every month. Ivan looks very much like Bondarchuk (famous for his 9th Squadron movies) but editors swear Ivan has nothing to do with him.

Most of magazine’s article are dialogues between Ivan and experts in six areas: photo, video, audio, computers, play consoles, home cinemas, cars, gadgets and mobile phones. “Ivan follows the search algorithm of a typical college educated, 25-45 aged male” – editors claim referring to hundreds of consumer behavior and ethnographic research.

Editors are also very proud of high class photography. The first issue boasts works of cult photo master from Italy Fabricio Raynon who was also responsible for casting models.

Поживем, увидим.

Via Sostav

Eat upon reading

Inmarko company launched its new KVN ice cream with different (99 in all) original KVN jokes printed on it. This one reads, "Due to criminal neglect of museum workers Kazimir Malevich's "Black Square" painting was hung upside down for two months."

What is KVN? Here's the Wikipedia information:

KVN (Russian: КВН, an abbreviation of Russian: Клуб Весёлых и Находчивых, Klub Vesyolykh i Nakhodchivykh", "Club of the cheerful and sharp-witted" people) is a Russian humor TV show where Russian post-secondary student teams compete by giving funny answers to questions, improvisations, prepared sketches. The program has been aired by Channel One since 1961. Seven years later, when a few programs were being broadcast live, Soviet censors found the students' impromptu jokes offensively anti-Soviet and banned the KVN for fourteen years. The show was revived during the Perestroika era, in 1986, with Alexander Maslyakov as its host. It is one of the longest-running programs on Russian TV.

KVN reach is impressive. According to the official site of KVN Union:
over 5 million live spectactors annually watch how
more than 40,000 participants organized into
more than 3,000 regularly competing teams from
more than 100 cities
play game of KVN.

Via Adme

Kvas from Coca-Cola

Russian business newspaper Kommersant reported that Coca-Cola plans in the nearest future to launch its own brand of kvas. Some information on kvas from wikipedia:

Kvass, bread drink (lit. "leaven"; Russian and Ukrainian: квас (kvas), Polish: kwas chlebowy (lit. "bread leaven"), Lithuanian: gira, Estonian: kali) is a fermented mildly alcoholic beverage popular in Russia, Ukraine and other Eastern European countries.
It is so low in alcohol that is considered acceptable for consumption by children. Though sometimes thought of as “children’s beer”, it is favored by all ages equally.
In strength kvass can be almost alcohol-free and at its strongest is only around 1-1.5%. It is often flavoured with fruits or herbs such as strawberries or mint.
Russians also use kvass for cooking a special summer cold soup, okroshka.

Snezhana Ravluk from Business Analytica believes that kvas market in Russia reached US$215 million and will be growing 10-15% over next few years. Traditionally people drink their own home brewed kvas but more and more often Russians prefer this drink bottled. The problem with bottled kvas is that it usually is nothing but carbonated kvas-like drink. The only real “living” kvas you can find on the market is Ochakovo (Очаково). Be warned – it contains up to 2% alcohol.

Russian Advertising Industry 2006

It is not yet clear how much money is spent on content advertising on internet but experts believe it to be 50-60 mln. $US in 2006. The growth in advertising industry never stopped since 2000 being on average from 15 to 30% yearly. There are about 6000 advertising agencies in Russia employing more than one million people.

Television accounts for almost a half of all advertising expenses but in 2006 when a new bill on advertising limited time and frequency of TV commercials prices grew 30% and more advertisers decided to pay more attention to radio, printed media and BTL.

In 2006 outdoor advertising market exceeded one billion $US and grew almost 30%. This means that in outdoor advertising Russia is #3 in Europe (after UK and France) and #6 in the world (leaders are US, Japan and China). Yet most experts don’t expect further growth. There are more and more concerns about too much visual pollution on the streets. Everyone who visited Moscow can see it – the city is covered under billboards.

Sexist Chocolate

I already wrote some time ago about a curious attempt of Nestle to launch chocolate targets on men only. Actually “Nestle For Men” was an attempt to get some share from Ritter Sport that in Russia is especially popular among men. “Nestle For Men” is not only quadratisch and praktisch but also bigger. Although I’m not sure how important it is.

Lowe Adventa is behind a new commercial for “Nestle For Men”. I’m afraid in the US or UK this commercial would be regarded as sexist but I find it hilarious. You don’t really need to know Russian to understand what it’s about.

Click to watch

Sour Cream and Muschrooms

Ronaldinio is eating sour cream with mushrooms and learns to speak Russian. This commercial created by BBDO Moscow for Frito Lay company. The agency chose this very idea as the brand Lay’s is “organically” integrated in the plot, Ronaldinio speaks Russian, it’s humorous and the story sounds real. The taste is also very Russian – sour cream with roasted mushrooms is delicious.

Click on the picture to watch.

Via Adme