In October 2023, a video allegedly filmed in the United States went viral on social networks. A Vicks commercial appeared on a huge screen on Broadway, where a man who looks like the president of Ukraine sniffs something and then explodes. We checked if this post is real.
The video being shared lasts only 12 seconds. The video shown on the captured screen shows a computer image of a man with the coat of arms of Ukraine on his shoulder. One of the most popular signatures reads: “Vicks ran a nasal spray ad in New York. A character very similar to Zelensky sniffs the entire space around him with relish, and then colorfully explodes. The advertising slogan: “Helps increase the capabilities of your nose!” The authors of some publications believe that in this way advertisers trolled President of Ukraine, ridiculed his alleged drug addiction, which has been consistently attributed to the politician by Russian officials, media and pro-government bloggers.
Similar posts have gained popularity in Telegram channels, including “Uncle Slava"(220,000 views at the time of writing this analysis), Voblya (171,000), "Ivan Utenkov"(123,000), "Banned"(78,000), "Russia 2.0"(76,000), "Release the Kraken!"(75,000), "Notes from Zhirinovsky" (53,000), "Nikita Mikhalkov on Telegram" (27,000), "To be honest | News"(25,000), "Antichips | Live news channel"(21,000), "Denazification UA" (19,000), "Anton Shabashov" (17,000) and "[Z] Hand of the Kremlin"(16,000). Among the media and news sites about viral advertising they wrote “Constantinople" And "Zov Kherson" In addition, the video can be found on VKontakte (examples here, here And here), X (formerly Twitter; here, here And here), "Zene", as well as on the website "I cried"
"Verified" confirms that the video shows New York City. We have established that the screen captured in the recording located in the very center of the city in Times Square - at the intersection of 45th Street and Broadway. Moreover, the video was definitely created quite recently. So, if you look at this location in Google Street View, then the facade of the buildings in the street panorama taken in August 2022 will be slightly different from how it looks in the viral video.
Cameraman of viral video media billboard - Silvercast Media company. On its Instagram* account as early as August 18, 2023, the company published video introducing a new modern screen called The Monsta. It was on this 3D banner that the advertisement with Zelensky was allegedly shown. Verified requested comment from Silvercast co-founder Gary Grossman, but had not received a response at the time of publication of this analysis.
Now as for the advertiser. Vicks is real existing an over-the-counter drug brand owned by Procter & Gamble and Helen of Troy Ltd. Among products Vicks also has those that, according to the manufacturer, help fight the symptoms of a runny nose. However, there is no such advertisement with Zelensky on the official website Vicks, nor on his social networks: X, Facebook*, Instagram And YouTube. Moreover, according to Google search results, the slogan presented on the screen is in English (Helping your nose to boost its capabilities) meets only once - on forum with a discussion of the viral video. “Verified” wrote to the brand’s customer service. A Vicks spokeswoman said she had not heard of the ad before receiving our message and promised to share new information if it became available.
In addition to the fact that there are no traces of such advertising on the brand’s resources, other details indicate the fake nature of the viral video. For example, on the official website of Times Square it saysthat the billboard occupies a dominant position in the block and is located several meters above the busy pedestrian areas that attract the attention of millions of visitors every day. Despite this, there is only one record of resonant advertising on the Internet. Moreover, about this incident, which allegedly occurred in the center of New York, didn't write not a single American media.
The likely source of the fake is the Telegram channel "Ne.Sugar", which has been "Checked" dozens of times before caught on the spread of fakes and other types of disinformation. At least we could not find earlier publications using keywords. In Ne.Sugar, the fake video appeared on October 9, 2023 at 12:11 Moscow time and received more than 333,000 views.
Falsification of advertisements on such billboards has been practiced by the creators of pro-Russian fakes since the end of 2022. So, in November 2022, as well as May, June And September In 2023, several other fake videos appeared, also allegedly filmed in New York (including Times Square), and in July 2023, a similar fake used video from Tokyo. Narrative that the Ukrainian president is a drug addict is also popular in the pro-Russian segment of the Internet and is often supported by fabricated video recordings And another disinformation. For example, in recent months appeared a whole wave of video messages from celebrities who allegedly asked Zelensky to go to rehab.
*Russian authorities think Meta Platforms Inc., which owns the social networks Instagram and Facebook, is an extremist organization; its activities in Russia are prohibited.
Cover photo: social networks
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