Apple & Diesel: Kyiv Front And Center In New International Ads

One of the largest technology companies in the world, Apple, has arrived in Ukraine. But don’t go looking for one of its iconic Apple Stores in Kyiv anytime soon. Rather, the company has filmed one of the advertisements for its Apple Watch Series 3 in the Ukrainian capital.

The video, presented at a September 12 press event in Cupertino, California, depicts a skateboarder going down the escalator at Kyiv’s Central Train Station while playing with his Apple Watch. He then selects a song to listen to and begins skating through the station, gliding between largely unresponsive travellers.

Later in the video, he skates across the chairs in the train station’s second floor waiting area. Then, he’s suddenly zooming through the Zoloti Vorota metro station, which Business Insider ranked as one of the world’s 20 most beautiful metro stations in 2016.

Ukrainian media have reported that the video was filmed in June and produced by the Kyiv-based Radioaktivefilm film company, which previously worked on foreign advertisements and music videos like “Up&Up” by Coldplay, “Shine” by Years & Years, and “Wings” by Hurts.

One of Radioaktivefilm’s latest and most memorable works, released last year, is a commercial for Sodastream, a home soda-making machine. It features two Game of Thrones actors and was filmed at Andriyivskyi Uzviz, a scenic tourist hotspot in Kyiv.

But Radioaktivefilm refuses to confirm or deny its involvement in the new Apple ad. A representative only told Hromadske that they like the video and think it “looks really cool.”

Screenshot of the video

The Apple Watch ad comes just days after the release of another prominent video filmed in Kyiv: a new advertisement for the popular Italian fashion label Diesel’s “Go with the Flaw” campaign. Created by Family Production, another Ukrainian production company, the advertisement was filmed at the infamous Podilsko-Voskresensky Bridge in Kyiv’s grungy, far-flung Troyeshchina neighborhood. The rusty, incomplete bridge has been under stop-and-go construction for almost 25 years.

Diesel - Go With The Flaw

Podilsko-Voskresensky’s “ruin porn” aesthetic fits perfectly with the “Go with the Flaw” campaign, which claims to celebrate imperfection. To bring more attention to the campaign, Diesel even deleted all its previous Instagram posts prior to the release of the video.

“We think perfection is boring, and especially on Instagram, everybody seeks perfection. Perfect photo, perfect picture, perfect life. And we are just tired of it,” Diesel wrote in a statement. “So we decided to delete everything for an imperfect new beginning.”

Nicola Formichetti, Diesel’s artistic director, told Ukraine’s Fashion Week Daily website that he “did not expect much from Ukraine” before he arrived.

“But as it turned out, I was wrong. The filming location was just wonderful,” he said. “Moreover, I found a lot of interesting places, which did not fit [our campaign] this time, but I will be sure to use them for our editorials in the future.”

“People here are very welcoming and friendly,” Formichetti added. “I never saw so many beautiful people in the streets.”

/By Maria Romanenko