Ukrainian Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin has proposed that Lufthansa advertise its flights to Kyiv on the basis of materials shot in the Ukrainian capital used to advertise its flights to Russia.
“Like an ordinary person, I understand why Lufthansa has chosen Ukraine instead of Russia for shooting: it’s beautiful and safe here. But deceiving is not good. It’s better to shoot in Ukraine about Ukraine. I propose the footage be used to produce fancy ads about their flights to Kyiv,” Klimkin tweeted on Monday, June 4, commenting on the fact that Lufthansa used Kyiv as a location to shoot advertising about Russia.
Pending the 2018 FIFA World Cup, which will be held in Russia, Lufthansa had launched a commercial to promote its flights to Russia, but the video featured a recognizable location in a residential area in Kyiv. The public’s negative reaction to the “swap” made the company remove the video from the campaign.
As a member of the crew explained, the decision to shoot the video in Ukraine about Russia’s openness to tourists was made in view of the fact that it had been very hard to get permission for filming in Russia. Moreover, no one was expected to notice the change of the location as Germans were the target audience, although the video clip was available on YouTube.
