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Editor’s note: As part of our coverage of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Adweek has been reaching out to creative professionals who remain in the country. Serhii Malyk, creative director for Kyiv-based creative agency Angry, sent us the following dispatch.
On the night of Feb. 24, Inna [Polshina, co-founder and creative services director of Angry] and I woke up in Kyiv disturbed by loud noises. Our sleepy brains refused to believe it, but our hearts knew—Russia launched an attack on Ukraine.
I checked social media. The very first post I saw stated, “Kharkiv is under shelling.”
Several days have passed since that moment, yet they feel like several months. Millions of Ukrainians sleep, transit and give birth in subways and other shelters, while Russian military forces bombard our land with rockets and airstrikes from the Russian and Belarusian territories.
Even if there was fear during the first hours of the offensive, now it is gone. Not a single Ukrainian fears now.
Children continue to study math in the basements of their homes. Seniors empty-handedly stop the movement of the Russian tanks. You ask why? We all realized how strong the Ukrainian Armed Forces are. We all saw how our men and women endure and prevail over the army of one of the biggest countries. We all witnessed the valor with which they have been defending us.
The first days of the Russian invasion bound us all so much that it became clear to everyone: We all need to fight.
Mothers weave camouflage nets and prepare Molotov cocktails. To donate blood, you will have to stand in a line longer than the one for a fresh drop of Kanye West sneakers. Commercial companies are giving food for free. Those who used to develop marketing strategies, film ads and design for brands are now contributing to the cause.
All of you who sit with us in various ad festival juries, all of you who communicate with us on social media, all of you who we meet at Brun in Cannes: Help us.
Since the start of the Russian invasion, communication industry specialists organized themselves into dozens and even hundreds of creative units. Some work with colleagues, some with friends, and some prefer to do it alone. But today these are not separated teams anymore—now this is a big agency with mobile and operative groups. One united agency that works on one brief. It’s the most important brief in the history of our country: defend our land and stop the war that Russia has initiated.
Some people produce hundreds of comments across Russian social media. Some people design illustrations, pictures, web banners and infographics. Some people create motivating supportive videos, while others develop headlines for outdoor advertising to address aggressors’ forces. Some develop chatbots. An excellent example of that is our friends’ bot that helps people to evacuate: @nampodorozi_bot.
Since Russia filters information from outside for its citizens, our friends created cover art for Ukrainian musicians popular in Russia.
[Editor’s note: The image below, intended to be substituted as cover art for a song, says: “While you are listening to this track, Ukrainian civilians are dying from the bombing by the Russian Federation. Citizens of Russia, stop this war. Take to the streets!”]
Our mates created a powerful video about the events in Ukraine.
Here is the work of a copywriter that wrote an open letter to Belarusians, so they do not support Russia in their war against Ukraine: NoBelarus.in.ua.
This is just a tiny part of what the industry is doing now. The projects that we have mentioned are here not because they are anyhow better than others, but because now, where lots of Ukrainians are struggling to fall asleep, these are the ones we could remember. Surely, now is not the time of praising what has been done; now is the time of doing. Doing. Doing. Doing. Doing. Doing. Doing. Doing. Doing.
We need the world to continue posting, sharing, going to meetings and demonstrations. We need people and companies donating resources to support our defenders.
It is unknown how many people worked on each project listed above. There is no time for credits. We all help each other. Everyone is working on many efforts simultaneously, unbothered by the never-ending rocket strikes. If people used to text one another, “Sorry, I was busy, I will see what I can do for you next week,” now they respond with, “Sorry, I was on my way to the shelter, but I’m already working on the task.”
Creative specialists from other countries can help Ukraine to defend its land, too. All of you who sit with us in various ad festival juries, all of you who communicate with us on social media, all of you who we meet at Brun in Cannes: Help us.
How? Informational campaigns and media support are a bare minimum. It is vital for us that the world doesn’t stop speaking about Ukraine objectively. We need the world to continue posting, sharing, going to meetings and demonstrations. We need people and companies donating resources to support our defenders. It is vital for us that world leaders and governments go on supporting Ukraine and close the sky above us.
Here you can find an open brief: PreventWW3.in.ua.
It has been created by our friend, too. Most likely, people we had not known before contributed as well.
But they are our friends now. Each one of them. Forever.
You can connect with Serhii Malyk and creative agency Angry on Instagram.
