The VkusVill advert was launched to highlight their regular customer base which ran at the end of Pride Month. VkusVil kept in line with Russian law which bans LGBTQ+ advertising or propaganda and states companies must feature an age rating of 18 plus to prevent children from viewing “gay propaganda”.
Shortly after the advert aired online, the company were swarmed with hate comments and death threats targeting the advert which included a lesbian family.
Following the backlash, VKusVill issued an apology: “We consider this publication to be our mistake, which was the result of individual employees’ unprofessionalism.” At the time, the retail chain said it would be “hypocritical” to remove the family’s story which was marked to comply with