In one of the scenes, a burly security guard cradles a metal detector in a supermarket aisle while a caption flashes up suggesting he is wasting his life: “Is this the kind of a defender you dreamt of becoming?” Next, he is seen with a determined look on his face, fully armed in a foggy warzone.
The personal trainer and the taxi driver are also mocked for their jobs as the ad asks: “Is this what your strength is about?”
The three men then march on a supposed battlefield, under the slogan: “You’re a man after all. Then act like one!”
Viewers are then encouraged to sign a contract with the Russian defence ministry.
The advert repeats the Kremlin narrative that Russia has not attacked Ukraine, but rather sent its troops there to “protect” local Russian-speaking populations.
The use of characters in menial jobs chimes with another propaganda line that security guards and street sweepers are frittering away their lives instead of deploying to Ukraine to help “defend” Russia.
The advert makes no secret of a key incentive to sign up: a monthly salary of about NZ$4040, an enviable wage for most of the country.
Russian media have identified the frustrated men in the advert as an actor who has been posting in favour of war on social media, a former Belarusian fitness trainer and another Russian actor who, back in 2014, wrote online about Russian “aggression” in Ukraine.
The advert was released a week after the Kremlin rammed a bill through parliament that allows for digital conscription and closes the borders to anyone who has been served a notice on the government’s online platform.
Soon after the Russian video appeared, Ukrainian activists responded by releasing their own edited version of the advert.
Using the same footage played in reverse order, the Ukrainian video showed Russian soldiers returning to their lives as taxi drivers and gym instructors.
The Kremlin’s slogans were replaced with anti-war messages, including one that read: “I don’t want to be responsible for Putin’s war crimes.”
Subverting the Russian advert’s final message, it said simply: “You’re a human. So be one.”
