Classic Soviet Cinema

Jesse Walker | July 28, 2008

An '80s-era Estonian commercial for meat:

Interesting contradiction: (a) This could be reused without any changes as a psychedelic interlude in a vegetarian propaganda picture, yet (b) watching it makes me hungry. I guess that's the dialectic at work. Or maybe it's lunchtime.

[Via Chris Bodenner.]

Comments

Naga Sadow|7.28.08 @ 12:05PM|#

I have no idea what was being said but I'm in the mood for some fried chicken now.

|7.28.08 @ 12:08PM|#

Why would there be commercials on communist television? It's not like there is competition. Anyone?

Jesse Walker|7.28.08 @ 12:10PM|#

Why would there be commercials on communist television? It's not like there is competition.

What were you expecting, economic rationality?

Wild-assed guess: They just really loved to churn out propaganda, and the same absence of competition that made ads unnecessary also meant they wouldn't be punished for spending their money making pointless commercials.

Naga Sadow|7.28.08 @ 12:11PM|#

MEAT!!!

|7.28.08 @ 12:25PM|#

I wonder if that was the same production company that made "Worker and Parasite", Eastern Europe's favorite can and mouse team?

Some Random Reader|7.28.08 @ 12:26PM|#

Here is another commercial from the same era
http://youtube.com/watch?v=uobrdxYFsNY
Pinguin Ice Cream

|7.28.08 @ 12:27PM|#

Dammit, "cat and mouse".

|7.28.08 @ 12:30PM|#

Why would there be commercials on communist television? It's not like there is competition. Anyone?



During my childhood in USSR (Belarus)I do not remeber ever seeing a single commercial. They had finally come about in the early 90's, but up until that point there were none as far as I know.

And by commercial I mean where your regularly schediuled programming is interrupted by a word from your sponsors. Furthermore, in Belarus at least, there were only two stations, one was the main station broadcast from Moscow, and one was a more regional/provincial one. But neither had any commericals until after the breakup of the country and the 'deregulation'.

I dont know about Estonia specificaly, they had always been a more independently oriented republic, but Im still not sure that this is a commercial in the traditional sense of the word. Maybe more like public service announcements?

By the way I was a kid, so maybe I wasnt watching the right kind of shows.

Episiarch|7.28.08 @ 12:46PM|#

In Soviet Russia, uh, dinner meats you?

Come on, somebody had to do it.

robc|7.28.08 @ 1:01PM|#

John-David,

One day I will get around to making my bootleg worker and parasite tee-shirt that I have meant to make for ~15 years now. ENDUT! HOCH HECH!

|7.28.08 @ 1:13PM|#

As a kid growing up on an American military base watching AFRTS, we'd see public service announcements concerning things like making sure the antenna on your tank was down before you crossed the tram tracks so everyone inside the tank wouldn't get fried.

|7.28.08 @ 1:26PM|#

http://www.darkroastedblend.com/2008/07/russian-vintage-advertising-posters.html

Some nice soviet ad posters at the link.

They would advertise "the ice cream" or "the chocolate".

shecky|7.28.08 @ 2:09PM|#

I swear, those girls must have been kidnapped from my high school.

SxCx|7.28.08 @ 2:15PM|#

Chicken coated in croutons? Did bread only come in two formats?

Mike Laursen|7.28.08 @ 2:59PM|#

Why would there be commercials on communist television? It's not like there is competition. Anyone?

A Russian friend explained it this way: When the Soviets had a surplus of vodka, they'd run ads promoting vodka. When they had a shortage, they'd run ads about the evils of vodka.

|7.28.08 @ 4:47PM|#

When the Soviets had a surplus of vodka...

That was, obviously, a very theoretical 'WHEN'.

BakedPenguin|7.28.08 @ 5:27PM|#

Always wondered what Vertov did after Chelovek S Kino Apparatom.

|7.28.08 @ 5:52PM|#

Kana Hakkliha is *PEOPLE*!!!

Urkobold™|7.28.08 @ 7:35PM|#

You know that, by now, dhex has found out who composed the music and is collecting all of their works.

highnumber|7.28.08 @ 7:37PM|#

That's weird!
The Urkobold™ usually writes in all caps, doesn't he? Some kids must be messing around on his computer.

|7.29.08 @ 2:30AM|#

Here's a really fine 80s-era New Wave tune about eating meat. I think the entendres are flying in this one as the subtext is about doing felatio on guys who do cunnilingus-my conjecture anyway.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qd6TcaEvswQ

(I sure hope that I don't get an email from Jesse that goes something like this: What in the Hell do you think you're doing? This is a LIBERTARIAN site not a libertine site. You can't comment here anymore.")

|7.30.08 @ 12:22AM|#

Sounds like Goblin did the score.