German airline Lufthansa has removed a video commercial for the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia after viewers noticed that much of it had been filmed not in Russia, but in the Ukrainian capital Kyiv.
The video advertised Lufthansa’s flight connections to Russia, which hosts the 2018 World Cup from June 14 to July 15.
The commercial called “As in Rio” or “Wie in Rio” in German, while filmed in Kyiv, implies that the action takes place in Russia, and Russian folk music plays in the background. The video was released on the weekend but deleted soon after because of an outcry on social media.
However, the video can still be viewed here.
Parts of the commercial were shot on the left bank of Dnipro River in Kyiv, in the districts of Berezniaky and Rusanivka. In it, two German fans are seen standing in an airport in Germany and looking at the flight to Moscow coming up on the departures board. Then, they imagine themselves in Russia, which is depicted by Kyiv’s Berezniaky district, next to a church. After being seen in a bar, the tourists are filmed on the bank of a canal in Kyiv’s Rusanivka district next to a fisherman, and then they finish their imaginary trip and are back in the airport.
“The video was filmed in Ukraine for logistical reasons,” Lufthansa spokesperson Boris Ogursky told the Kyiv Post in an e-mail. “For videos, and especially for commercials, it is common practice not to film them at their actual locations. In this video, it is all about the idea that the viewer has of a certain place.”
However, the company apologized for posting the video.
“In the first comments and reactions we noticed that in this specific case that this video hurt the feelings of some viewers. We deeply regret this and apologize officially for this. That is why Lufthansa had removed the video from all social media platforms already during this weekend.”
Ukraine, as well as the political leadership of Iceland, Sweden, and the UK, have announced a boycott of the 2018 FIFA World Cup football tournament because of Russia’s occupation of the Ukrainian territory of Crimea and the recent case of the poisoning of former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia in the UK. The British government has accused the Kremlin of being behind the attack on the Skripals.
