In new commercial, Russian electronics chain uses AI to show Prigozhin parachuting from plane, but it’s not the Prigozhin you’re thinking of
Russian consumer electronics chain M.Video released an ad for its “White Friday” sale featuring music producer Iosif Prigozhin and his wife, singer Valeriya, who “invite shoppers to take flight aboard the ‘Discount Jet.’”
In the clip, Valeriya plays a flight attendant and Prigozhin the captain as the two fly the “Discount Jet” before, for some reason, ejecting from the plane along with M.Video merchandise. The ad ends with Valeriya and Prigozhin drifting down on parachutes. The fate of the copilot is left to viewers’ imagination.
On social media, some interpreted the ad as a nod to the death of Yevgeny Prigozhin, the founder of the Wagner paramilitary group, who perished in a plane crash in August 2023, two months after an aborted armed mutiny against the Russian Defense Ministry. The Wall Street Journal reported that Prigozhin’s death was a murder orchestrated by Nikolai Patrushev, then secretary of Russia’s Security Council.
“Let’s just hope this plane is all right,” wrote one commenter under the M.Video ad.
“The chance of seeing Prigozhin ejecting from a plane is small, but never zero,” wrote the authors of the Telegram channel Oskar za Luchshuyu Zhenskuyu Bol.
“M.Video’s next promo: riding with Iosif Prigozhin to Black [Friday] in Moscow on APCs! Smartphone prices slashed — 80%!” joked journalist Ilya Shepelin.
M.Video said the clip’s “creative concept” was inspired by Valeriya’s song Malen’kiy samolet (“Little Airplane”) and that the video was produced using artificial intelligence.
Even during the Wagner Group founder’s lifetime, the two Prigozhins — Yevgeny and Iosif — were frequently confused with each other.
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