Cookies bearing meme that mocks Russia's prime minister suddenly disappear in Buryatia
The company Baykalsky Pryanik, which manufactures traditional Russian spice cookies known as “pryaniki,” is ending production of a special cookie bearing inscriptions of Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev's infamous remarks to pensioners in Crimea, whom he comforted last month in a crowd, “There's no more money, but you hang in there,” when they complained that Russian society security is too low.
The decision to stop producing the treat is the result of a “conversation” between the bakery’s administration and government officials, a source told the news agency FlashSiberia.
The bakers themselves have refused to explain concretely why they suddenly stopped making the spice cookies featuring Medvedev's quote, saying simply that they “want to wait a little.”
Journalist Arkady Zarubin was the first to draw attention to the cookie’s disappearance. Zarubin speculated that the bakery was advised to discontinue its product by “careful acquaintances,” threatened by the government, or decided to withdraw itself after reading unpleasant comments on the Internet.
This is the third occasion involving a famous Russian company's attempt to use Medvedev’s quote as part of a marketing campaign.
On May 25, the employees at Alfa-Bank published a joke on the company's social media accounts lampooning Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev’s recent comments to Crimean pensioners that “there's simply no more money” in the federal budget for them to be given better pensions and that they should just “hang in there” in the meantime.
On June 9, the telecommunications operator Tele2 fired its Russian advertiser for launching a billboard campaign that adapted Medvedev’s comments to promote Tele2. Banners displayed throughout Moscow read, “Competitors, but you hang in there! Wishing you well and good health!” (The ad campaign was dedicated to a recent study by the Russian government that found the operator’s mobile Internet speeds to be the fastest in the city.)