Georgian officials slammed for appearing in Russian mayonnaise ad
Three famously easy-on-the-eyes spokeswomen for Georgian key government offices – the defense ministry, presidential administration and the National Revenue Service – appeared in a glossy magazine advertisement for Sloboda, an omnipresent post-Soviet mayonnaise. It might have been the worst PR move in their careers, Eurasianet informs.
The officials faced a public outcry for promoting an enemy product, as Russia is Georgia’s number one geopolitical foe.
“Next they should star in a commercial for Russian tanks,” fumed one commenter on the Facebook page of City, the magazine that published the advertisement. “They are supposed to promote the Georgian government, but instead they promote Russian mayonnaise. Shame!” complained another.
Amid the furor, the City Georgia magazine hurried to remove the photo of the ad and the commentary it triggered from its Facebook page, but the screenshots of the ad lived on among irate Georgians.
The officials claimed they were not aware that they were promoting enemy mayonnaise. “I didn’t know that Sloboda was a Russian company, I thought it was Ukrainian,” one of the spokeswomen, the defense ministry’s Nino Tolordava told Netgazeti, a news website. She used the opportunity to reiterate her commitment to Georgia’s NATO integration, a plan that the mayo-making Russia ardently opposes.