Russian TV finally addresses drone strikes. Sort of.
After largely ignoring the impact of drone strikes inside Russia, their media is finally addressing the issue.. of, er.. its depiction in Estonian pork advertising.
Estonian meat producer Rannarootsi recently unveiled its new barbecue pork with caramelized onion, causing considerable offence to the same people who complain that everyone in the West is too easily offended these days.
“The right grill will turn a bitter onion sweet,” explained its advert, in which men with Ukrainian flags on their shirts can be seen grilling on the beach with smoke rising in the distance behind them.
“Sibul”, Estonian for ‘onion’, also happens to be a less-than-affectionate Estonian slang term for Russians.
Rannarootsi’s CEO says they wanted to refer to topical events, making the advert reflective of the rest of people’s media feeds, and says he wasn’t even aware of the double meaning.
Russian media took offence on behalf of Russian speaking residents of the Baltic countries, while not mentioning that Russian speakers in the Baltic countries enjoy some of the world’s highest levels of civic freedoms, far above that of any Russian speaker in Russia.
In online and offline discussions, a lot of normal people in Estonia - both Russian and Estonian speaking - are consistently making the same point: The onions are those who support Russia’s war against Ukraine.
In this sense, ‘onion’ is more like a synonym for ‘vatnik’, which is why a lot of Russian speakers say they found the advert funny because they know it’s not about them.
The unintended long term impact from this controversy may just be that it has elevated a more specific definition of the slang term.
All of which may not be enough to distract Russian viewers from the continued breakdown of daily life in Russia as people sit in line for fuel watching Ukrainian drones fly overhead and wondering whether the nightly news might cover some of their more pressing issues.
Meanwhile, the advert seems to have been well received in Ukraine.
Rannarootsi’s new barbecue pork is available at all good supermarkets in Estonia, although there are currently widespread shortages due to exceptionally high demand for some reason.
This is not a sponsored post.