Is it true that a condom advertisement featuring Putin was released in Brazil?

On social networks you can find advertising posters, including with a portrait of the President of the Russian Federation, under the general slogan “Some people should never have been born.” We checked whether Internet users interpret these images correctly.

Social media users are circulating (both together and separately) three pictures of world leaders placed inside condoms. One of the images shows Russian President Vladimir Putin, another shows former US President Donald Trump, and the third shows North Korean leader Kim Jong-un. It is alleged that these pictures were used to advertise contraceptives.

Similar publications can be found in a number of fairly large public pages on VKontakte. Among them "Science and Facts | What will happen if...?” (3.1 million subscribers at the time of writing this analysis), "Interesting Moscow" (1.4 million subscribers), WoW (834,000 subscribers) and "Guernica" (325,000 subscribers). Images were also posted by users of other social networks, for example Facebook*, Twitter And 9gag. At the end of 2019, notes about Brazilian condom advertising with Putin were published by Ukrainian media, in particular "Ukrainian Truth", "Hromadske", "NV" And "League".

The images of the three advertising “posters” were most actively posted in December 2019, but they continued to be posted later. At the same time, pictures with portraits of Trump and Kim Jong-un appeared on the Internet back in May 2017 on the design social network Behance. Same place in December 2019 posted similar image with Putin.

All three “posters” were published in account project Platinum FMD, which is based in Brazilian Rio de Janeiro. In the “About Us” section on the creative agency’s website it says, that his employees are involved in computer graphics and image creation for the publishing business. At the same time, on page with examples of work where the customer must be indicated, there are no pictures of world leaders inside condoms.

If you return to the agency's Behance page, you can pay attention to two important details. Firstly, neither the pictures themselves nor the project description mention any condom brand or contraceptive company. Secondly, at the end of the presentation of the first part of the project (pictures with Trump and Kim Jong-un) it is indicated that this is a “private project” - therefore, in particular, the designer published not only the “final” image, but also numerous sketches and screenshots of intermediate stages of work on the pictures.

When an image of Putin inside a condom went viral in late 2019, Platinum decided to clear the air on its Facebook page. “We discovered that our original series “Some People Should Never Be Born” appeared on a humor page on 9gag and became popular, haha. Thanks guys, and just to be clear, this is not an advertisement for condoms, this is just our creative imagination for a personal project." reported designers.

*Russian authorities think Meta Platforms Inc., which owns the social network Facebook, is an extremist organization; its activities in Russia are prohibited.

Cover photo: Twitter

Not true

What do our verdicts mean?

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