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What do billboards in Kyiv say about men and women?
Photographing problematic advertising images in the capital of Ukraine
When I go through the main street of Kyiv — the monumental and breathtaking Khreschatyk — there’s one huge billboard that always catches my attention and…pisses me off. It’s an advertisement for brabrabra — a Ukrainian brand of female underwear. The picture shows women, specifically a tiny portion of their backs, wearing different bras. It’s accompanied by just one word — тримаємось. Google translates the word into let’s hold on. It’s obvious. A good Ukrainian bra holds on. A good Ukrainian woman holds on, too?
The ad makes a cheeky reference to the ongoing war and how we are all holding up.
But what else does it say?
That, in this war, a woman is a butt of a joke?
I can’t imagine a similar ad made about men these days — in Ukraine, we’re either holy cows or not manly and heroic enough to be respected.
Before getting to Khreschatyk, I saw two other ads on a single moving billboard. The one with a man is for an NGO that raises money for the Ukrainian military. The one with a woman is for the jewellery brand Guzema.
What is the message here?
