When a preview of Vogue’s October 2022 cowl story on Ukrainian first woman Olena Zelenska hit Twitter on July 26, 2022, reactions on social media had been swift and polarized. Some critics mentioned {that a} picture shoot by famed photographer Annie Leibovitz for a trend journal was a “dangerous concept” and glamorized battle.

Others lauded the journal and Ukraine’s first woman for bringing consciousness to the struggling of Ukrainians, 5 months after Russia first invaded its neighboring nation.

Within the cowl picture, 44-year-old Zelenska wears a cream-colored shirt with rolled up sleeves, black trousers, and flats. She sits on the steps of the Ukrainian Parliament, leaning ahead with palms intertwined between her knees. Her make-up is minimal, her hair casually tossed as she seems straight on the digital camera. Inside hours, Ukrainian girls began utilizing the hashtag #sitlikeagirl to share pictures of themselves in the identical pose as a present of solidarity.

“Now we have little doubt we are going to prevail.” Because the battle in Ukraine enters a vital new part, the nation’s First Girl, Olena Zelenska, has change into a key participant—a frontline diplomat and the face of her nation’s emotional toll. https://t.co/DCXWYnzAsK pic.twitter.com/wcaY5IFGHf

— Vogue Journal (@voguemagazine) July 26, 2022

Vogue’s profile of Zelenska, headlined “A Portrait of Bravery” and written by journalist Rachel Donadio, matches into a bigger communication technique, mounted by Ukraine’s authorities, that’s supposed to maintain the world centered on the nation’s combat in opposition to Russian aggression. As a part of that effort, Ukraine additionally initiated a nation branding marketing campaign in April with the tagline “Bravery. To be Ukraine.”

As a communications scholar, I’ve studied how former communist nations like Ukraine have used advertising methods to burnish their worldwide reputations over the previous twenty years–a follow often known as nation branding.

Ukraine, nevertheless, is the primary nation to launch an official nation branding marketing campaign within the midst of battle. For the primary time, model communication is a key a part of a rustic’s response to a army invasion.

Nation branding and the top of communism

The concept that nations may be branded emerged in the beginning of the 21st century. This type of work makes use of promoting, public relations, and advertising methods to spice up nations’ worldwide reputations. Campaigns are sometimes timed to coincide with main sporting, cultural, or political occasions–just like the Olympics.

After the autumn of the Berlin Wall and the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, previously communist Jap European nations had been significantly desirous to rebrand themselves and get an up to date worldwide picture.

When Estonian musicians received the worldwide singing competitors Eurovision in 2001, Estonia grew to become the primary post-Soviet nation to carry this prize. Subsequently, the nation’s authorities employed a global promoting firm to design a contemporary nationwide model for Estonia because it ready to host Eurovision the next yr.

Analysis has proven, nevertheless, that former communist nations’ nation branding efforts weren’t meant only for worldwide consumption. In addition they offered a brand new option to discuss nationwide identities at dwelling, and reimagine nationwide values and targets, through advertising phrases.

However till 2022, no nation had used nation branding to combat a battle.

‘Bravery is our model’

Executives from the Ukrainian promoting company Banda first pitched the thought for Ukraine’s Bravery Marketing campaign to the federal government shortly after Russia invaded in February 2022. Based mostly in Kyiv and Los Angeles, the company had already labored earlier than the battle on government-sponsored campaigns, advertising Ukraine as a tourism and funding vacation spot.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy endorsed the wartime branding marketing campaign and publicly introduced its launch on April 7, 2022, in a video deal with. “Bravery is our model,” he acknowledged. “That is what it means to be us. To be Ukrainians. To be courageous.”

Within the following months, Banda produced quite a few messages in codecs starting from billboards, posters, and on-line movies to social media posts, T-shirts, and stickers. A marketing campaign web site gives downloadable logos and pictures and asks guests to share the message of bravery and donate to Ukraine.

Some billboards characteristic photos of brave, unusual Ukrainians and troopers. Different billboards are emblazoned with daring slogans within the blue and yellow colours of the Ukrainian flag. They urge audiences to “Be courageous like Ukraine” and say that “Bravery lives ceaselessly.”

Inside Ukraine, the marketing campaign’s messages seem on all the pieces from juice bottles to 500 billboards in 21 cities. The marketing campaign can be operating within the U.S., United Kingdom, Canada, and 17 nations in Europe, together with Germany, Spain, and Sweden, in line with AdAge.

This large communication effort is going on at a minimal price to Ukraine. Banda is donating its providers, and the Ukrainian authorities pays just for manufacturing prices. Media house, together with high-profile billboards in Occasions Sq. and different main cities, was donated by a number of international media firms.

Branding as a weapon of battle

Banda’s cofounder, Pavel Vrzheshch, has mentioned the marketing campaign goals to strengthen Ukrainians’ morale as they proceed to combat Russia. However the deal with bravery can be about Ukraine’s future, he says.

“The entire world admires the Ukrainian bravery now, we should consolidate this notion and have it characterize Ukraine ceaselessly,” Vrzheshch mentioned in a media interview.

At its core, the marketing campaign makes an attempt to remodel an intangible worth, like bravery, into an asset that may be transformed into actual army, financial, and ethical help. In different phrases, it goals to domesticate optimistic public opinion within the West that can help additional assist to Ukraine with a view to assist combat the battle.

This fashion of utilizing model communication in a battle is unprecedented in a minimum of 3 ways.

First, reasonably than relying solely on diplomatic channels to hunt worldwide help, Ukraine is harnessing widespread media and social media networks to talk on to residents of different nations. It provides unusual individuals all over the world an opportunity to point out solidarity by donations or by sharing marketing campaign messages and pressuring their authorities to help Ukraine.

A proper model marketing campaign additionally permits Ukraine to increase the visibility of the battle past information protection. Because the battle continues, it’s more likely to fade from information headlines in worldwide media. However billboards, social media posts, and the strategic use of leisure publications like Vogue can hold it in entrance of audiences.

Lastly, the most effective model messages join with customers by inviting them to think about higher variations of themselves. Well-known advert slogans like Nike’s “Simply do it” or {Apple}’s “Assume completely different” illustrate this concept. So does Ukraine’s name to individuals all over the world to “Be courageous like Ukraine.”

It’s notoriously troublesome to measure the effectiveness of nation branding campaigns, as model consultants level out. The method is expensive and time-consuming, and outcomes are sometimes contested.

The direct impression of the Courageous Marketing campaign is probably not clear for months to return. It is usually not clear how lengthy its message will proceed to resonate. However it’s clear that Ukraine is remodeling nation branding into a brand new propaganda weapon, tailored for the age of client tradition and fixed media stimulation.

Nadia Kaneva is an affiliate professor on the College of Denver