During the post-Soviet period, the Russian government actively used public service advertisements to establish their new identity and to find ways to move forward and solve their concerns. In particular, public service advertisements in the post-Soviet era are different from public service advertisements in the Soviet era in that messages from the central government were emphasized unilaterally. Some public service advertisements produced in the early days of the post-Soviet era contain enlightening elements. However, in most cases, the focus was on delivering a two-way cultural message based on the norms and values commonly used in society. By doing so, they aimed to elicit understanding and sympathy for the society and its members. In this respect, public service advertisements produced during the post-Soviet period are differentiated from the Soviet propaganda, which spread like a one-way message. Meanwhile, some advertisements produced at the private level in the early days of the post-Soviet form a link between the present and the past in a way that stimulates the nostalgic sensibility of the Russians at the time. Through this, the advertisements suggested the possibility of resolving the gap and conflict that existed between the former Soviet era and the new Russia. Furthermore, it indirectly shows how life in the public realm and national time, which was the focus of the post Soviet era, transformed into and harmonized personal time and the private realm in the post-Soviet era.
Therefore, in this article, we look at the types of Russian public service advertisements in the modern sense that began to develop in earnest in the early days of the post-Soviet era and examine the social and cultural issues of Russia in the 1990s through the messages and images in the advertisements. Furthermore, we examine how public service advertisements produced during this period built the image of a 'new Russia' after the collapse of the Soviet Union. To this end, we first examine the differences between the ‘propaganda-type’ public service advertisements produced during the Soviet era and the public service advertisements produced in the US and European markets at the same time. Subsequently, we briefly review the history of public service advertisements produced in the early days of the post-Soviet era, and learn about the establishment process of related laws. Furthermore, by analyzing representative public service advertisements produced in the early days of the post-Soviet era, we examine how the various images and texts in advertisements function as cultural messages. Through this, we observe how the various messages in Russian public service advertisements are used to build an image of the ‘new Russia’ soon after the collapse of the Soviet Union.