Propaganda Watch: Russian Social Media Ads–2/9/2020

Russian President Vladimir Putin superimposed into a Russian Flag. Image by Lenny Ghoul.

This is part of an ongoing series where I review some of the ads purchased by the Russians. In doing so I hope we can get a better understanding of what they were trying to do, and how to recognize it the next time we’re faced with propaganda.

If you want to follow along, the ads can all be downloaded here. All of today’s ads can be found in the 2016-q2/2016-06 folder.

Russians love Spongebob Squarepants. At least, they did during June 2016, when he was the second most popular individual on TV next to Vladimir Putin. This could be seen in the various appearances he made in their meme group, Memeopolis. P(1)0003792:

They recycled the image in p(1)0003820, with a sexist caption for good measure:

P(1)0003968 skipped the reused image and made a joke about the silverware:

This is an open thread. Take care, and have a great Sunday.

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