''In Soviet Georgia'' was the name of a 1970s

advertising campaign An advertising campaign or marketing campaign is a series of advertisement messages that share a single idea and theme which make up an integrated marketing communication (IMC). An IMC is a platform in which a group of people can group their ide ...

used by

Dannon Danone S.A. () is a French multinational food-products corporation based in Paris. It was founded in 1919 in Barcelona, Spain. It is listed on Euronext Paris, where it is a component of the CAC 40 stock market index. Some of the company's produ ...

yogurt Yogurt (; , from , ; also spelled yoghurt, yogourt or yoghourt) is a food produced by bacterial Fermentation (food), fermentation of milk. Fermentation of sugars in the milk by these bacteria produces lactic acid, which acts on milk protein to ...

in the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

to make the argument that eating the product would make one healthier. The campaign was lucrative for Dannon, allowing it to make profits after years of losses.Feature article: How consumer insight makes or breaks a new brand - Customer loyalty, customer retention, and customer relationship marketing daily news and information - free, unbiased news for the marketing executive or researcher
The campaign ran from October 1976
/ref> to 1978 in U.S. television and print advertisements. Unique in that it was the first American TV commercial to be produced in the then

Soviet The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

Republic A republic, based on the Latin phrase ''res publica'' ('public affair' or 'people's affair'), is a State (polity), state in which Power (social and political), political power rests with the public (people), typically through their Representat ...

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the South Caucasus * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the southeastern United States Georgia may also refer to: People and fictional characters * Georgia (name), a list of pe ...

(now the independent nation of

), the commercial won numerous advertising plaudits.Acidophilus

Creation

The campaign was penned by the Marsteller advertising agency at the urging of the CEO of

Danone Danone S.A. () is a French multinational corporation, multinational food-products corporation based in Paris. It was founded in 1919 in Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain. It is listed on Euronext Paris, where it is a component of the CAC 40 stock mark ...

's U.S. division at the time, Juan Metzger; he wished to market Dannon yogurt in a more health-conscious direction. The production crew travelled to

Abkhazia Abkhazia, officially the Republic of Abkhazia, is a List of states with limited recognition, partially recognised state in the South Caucasus, on the eastern coast of the Black Sea, at the intersection of Eastern Europe and West Asia. It cover ...

in July 1976 to film the spots. In October 1976, the first

commercials A television advertisement (also called a commercial, spot, break, advert, or ad) is a span of television programming produced and paid for by an organization. It conveys a message promoting, and aiming to market, a product, service or idea. ...

aired on U.S. television, and the first print advertisements were run in ''

TIME Time is the continuous progression of existence that occurs in an apparently irreversible process, irreversible succession from the past, through the present, and into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequ ...

'' and ''

Newsweek ''Newsweek'' is an American weekly news magazine based in New York City. Founded as a weekly print magazine in 1933, it was widely distributed during the 20th century and has had many notable editors-in-chief. It is currently co-owned by Dev P ...

''. Similar ad campaigns followed in 1977 and 1978. The commercial entitled ''Son of Russia'' won a Clio Award in 1978. It was written by Steve Kasloff and the creative director was Peter Lubalin.

Television commercials

In the commercials, shots of elderly

farmer A farmer is a person engaged in agriculture, raising living organisms for food or raw materials. The term usually applies to people who do some combination of raising field crops, orchards, vineyards, poultry, or other livestock. A farmer ...

s were interspersed with an off-camera

announcer An announcer is a voice artist who relays information to the audience on a broadcast media programme or live event either on radio or television. Television and other media Some announcers work in television production, radio or filmmaki ...

intoning, "In

Soviet Georgia The Georgian Soviet Socialist Republic, also known as Soviet Georgia, the Georgian SSR, or simply Georgia, was one of the republics of the Soviet Union from its second occupation (by the Red Army) in 1921 to its independence in 1991. Cotermin ...

, where they eat a lot of yogurt, a lot of people live past

100 100 or one hundred (Roman numeral: C) is the natural number following 99 and preceding 101. In mathematics 100 is the square of 10 (in scientific notation it is written as 102). The standard SI prefix for a hundred is " hecto-". 100 is the b ...

." Each shot had a caption at the bottom, which would tell the audience the farmer's name and his or her age, which ranged from 95 to 105. One such commercial ended with a shot of an old man eating Dannon yogurt, with a woman who was purported to be his 114-year-old mother looking at him fondly. The announcer said, "89-year old Bagrat Tabaghua... ate two cups. That pleased his mother very much." The actual ages of the farmers shown were disputed afterwards and were never proven by the Dannon company.

Success of the campaign

Advertising periodicals such as ''

Advertising Age ''Ad Age'' (known as ''Advertising Age'' until 2017) is a global media brand that publishes news, analysis, and data on marketing and media. Its namesake magazine was started as a broadsheet newspaper in Chicago in 1930. ''Ad Age'' appears in ...

'', '' The Chief Executive'', and '' The Wise Marketer'' cited the commercials as a good example of business strategy. In the case of ''Advertising Age'', they ranked In Soviet Georgia in the Top 50 of the best TV commercials of all time and #89 on the list of the 100 Greatest Advertising Campaigns.

Marketing Marketing is the act of acquiring, satisfying and retaining customers. It is one of the primary components of Business administration, business management and commerce. Marketing is usually conducted by the seller, typically a retailer or ma ...

analysts for ''The Wise Marketer'' noted that after the In Soviet Georgia ads, the Dannon company reversed a loss trend and started making profits in 1975, which would not end until the fiscal year 1990, when price hikes for yogurt across the board caused sales to decline.

Reruns

Starting in 1996, the ads were replayed on the classic television channel

TV Land TV Land is an American pay television channel owned by Paramount Global through its networks division's MTV Entertainment Group. It was originally launched as Nick at Nite’s TV Land as a spinoff of Nick at Nite programing block consisting e ...

, and its offshoot, TV Land Canada.

References

{{Soviet Union–United States relations, state=collapsed Advertising campaigns Groupe Danone American television commercials Soviet Union–United States relations 1970s television commercials