The Russian media outlet "Meduza" has used footage from the war in Ukraine for advertising purposes abroad.
The Russian opposition publication "Meduza," based in Latvia, has launched an advertisement using footage from the war in Ukraine, with the help of a Berlin advertising agency. The media's ad is being distributed to a Western audience, as reported on February 1 by Victoria Feshak, a member of the Ukrainian public organization "Viche Berlin."
The advertisement for the Russian media was developed free of charge by the Berlin creative agency Lure, as mentioned on their page. According to the agency, the advertising campaign is titled "Where Other Headlines End, Meduza Begins." The agency explained that the advertisement was created to support Russian journalists "who risk their lives every day to bring us the truth."
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Victoria Feshak stated that she saw the "Meduza" advertisement in a cinema in Berlin. Among the footage used in the advertising campaign were videos and photos of explosions resulting from Russian attacks in Ukraine. The cover of the advertisement featured a photo by Lviv resident Yaroslav Bazylevych at the funeral of his wife and three daughters, who died due to a Russian shelling in Lviv on September 4, 2024.
In the comments under the posts related to the advertising campaign, Ukrainian users expressed outrage and criticized the creative agency's decision to use images of Ukrainian suffering to promote the "Russian liberal press," which "suffers in exile."