Such information was disseminated on social networks, in particular, on telegram channels broadcasting pro-Kremlin rhetoric. Reports say that VICKS allegedly launched an ad for a nasal spray in New York City featuring an animated character who “looks like Volodymyr Zelenskyi”. The authors of the message add a video where the hero strongly inhales air and then explodes. The video ends with the slogan: “VICKS helps increase the capabilities of your nose!”. It's a lie.

The VoxCheck fact-checkers analyzed the case and found that the VICKS company reported that they did not run this advertisement, but rather a compiled video. After all, no media came out with this news, and the video was only distributed on social networks in the Russian segment. In fact, experts used a reverse search on Google to discover the location of the likely advertisement. The fake video also contains other advertisements: for example, on the screen nearby they advertise the Amazon Freevee platform, where one can watch the series Jury Duty. Although the film was still released in April 2023. It is unlikely that it will be advertised 6 months later.

We have repeatedly documented hoaxes involving fake graffiti or covers on foreign magazines, newspaper columns or advertisements. Thus, propagandists seek to show that their rhetoric (for example, that Zelenskyi is hated by the whole world) is also repeated in the West. So it may seem to readers that the public is really dissatisfied with Ukraine. And especially when the authors use elements of popular culture, hinting that people are mocking the situation in Ukraine, and that the Ukrainian agenda for Europe is a reason to laugh.