The State Consumer Service has summarized the results of monitoring advertising activities in the country for the first nine months of 2024
The highest number of violations was found in Kyiv and Kharkiv regions. This was reported by the State Consumer Service.
The regulatory authority recorded that many regions are not complying with language legislation, with numerous instances of advertising using the language of the aggressor state. The total fines for these violations amounted to 1.1 million hryvnias.
Additionally, more than two hundred violations in the advertising of medical products and services were registered. Such materials were published without warnings about the dangers of self-medication and promoted individuals posing as doctors. The total amount of imposed fines reached nearly 600 thousand hryvnias.
“Unfortunately, not all advertising content is honest and transparent. Some advertisers disregard legal requirements, creating and disseminating misleading advertisements,” noted Andriy Kreitor, Deputy Head of the State Consumer Service.
Reminder: In October 2023, a correspondent from “Kashtan NEWS” shared impressions of the overwhelming advertising in the underground vestibule of the “Square of Ukrainian Heroes” station. We did not see any social advertising about Ukrainian Heroes on the tunnel walls, in the passages between stations, or on metro lights. The walls of the station vestibule were filled with intrusive advertisements for products from a well-known retail chain. Almost everywhere passengers were greeted by images of some mutants with mermaid tails, as well as dreadful rabbits in glasses. And this is in the advertising spaces of a station named after Ukrainian Heroes!
“Kасhtan NEWS” also reported that innovations regarding the placement of advertising signage on buildings and their design were introduced in Kyiv. The Advertising Department of the Kyiv City State Administration insists that this was done to preserve the historical environment of the city and ensure the comfort of residents. But why don’t we see improvements?
In December 2024, a journalist from “Kashtan NEWS” criticized the work of the officials of the Kyiv City State Administration in the article Falling on Khreshchatyk... from advertising, noting that even at a distance of two hundred meters from the municipality, they cannot see signs in Russian. “Network of tourist information centers” – is what we read on the pavilions near Independence Square and Bessarabsky Market.
It is also worth noting that at the beginning of 2022, the Commissioner for the Protection of the State Language, Taras Kremin, appealed to the mayors of several cities, including Vitali Klitschko. The basis for this was violations of language legislation, with Kyiv being named one of the “record holders.” Numerous complaints from citizens regarding the placement of information in non-state languages for general acquaintance, including signs, plaques, inscriptions, etc., as well as outdoor advertising on the premises of public facilities, were sent to the language ombudsman.
Today, the State Consumer Service has already named Kyiv among the violators of language legislation. When will Klitschko’s team draw fundamental conclusions?