“I don’t care about lines at the Polish border, and I’m not afraid of extortion,” a 1995 television ad proclaimed, promoting ferry trips to Germany. It was a time when Lithuanian advertising existed on two extremes: amateurish, locally produced spots on one end, and adapted foreign ads designed to introduce international products to the fledgling market on the other.
Barter deals and early sponsorships
One of the most common genres in early Lithuanian television advertising was sponsored programs, a practice born out of necessity. Lithuanian TV, strapped for funds, relied on barter deals with foreign corporations, often receiving equipment in exchange for advertising space.
“These were exchanges to secure cheap airtime in the future,” said Paulius Senūta, founder of the creative agency Not Perfect Vilnius, during an interview on LRT RADIO’s Buvo nebėra program.
Senūta, who entered the advertising world around the turn of the millennium, recalls that advertising in the 1990s was a new frontier. Without formal advertising education, agencies were staffed by artists, actors, and journalists drawn to more lucrative opportunities.
“Coming out of the Soviet era, when we lived through shortages, active selling, vibrant colours, and showing the product name was something new,” he said.
He noted that packaging design received little attention at the time, as many products in the Soviet era had none. “Packaging was mainly for alcohol producers, and not even all of them,” he added.
Local vs foreign ads
The first post-independence ads fell into two categories: local business productions, often in-house and resembling long, dull TV reports, and Western-investor ads, frequently translated and adapted, which flooded the airwaves.
“There was no attempt to create an impression or tell a story,” Senūta said of the early Lithuanian spots.
Foreign companies hiring Lithuanian agencies helped grow the industry. The first advertising agencies in Lithuania appeared between 1990 and 1992. During the 1990s, television and newspapers dominated, while outdoor advertising emerged later.
The introduction of mobile networks around 2000 ushered in aggressive local advertising campaigns, particularly for mobile operators.
“We made the first comparative ad for one of the mobile service providers, which caused an uproar: how come we’re comparing prices?” Senūta recalled. “On the other hand, it had a big commercial impact and helped the sales.”
Promoting Lithuania to the world
Post-independence, Lithuania also sought to establish a national image abroad. In 1994, the government allocated 1.5 million litas ($375,000 at the exchange rate of the time) to Newsweek for a supplement promoting Lithuania to investors.
The ad was criticised for providing little useful business information and for factual errors, such as calling Grand Duke Vytautas a king and mislabelling government officials.
The critics contrasted the campaign with a similar Newsweek supplement about Estonia where the country was presented as fully ready to receive investors.
“These were very large sums at the time; probably no private client would have spent that much,” Senūta said.
Despite criticism, efforts to craft Lithuania’s image through advertising continued for years, with limited results. For some aggressive agencies, it was a lucrative business, Senūta noted: “A form of extortion – there are specialised agencies that travel the world and blackmail governments that lack self-confidence.”
Selling a president
The 1990s saw a focus on sales-driven advertising. Products like margarine, previously unpopular, were promoted as healthy and light. Beer companies launched contests tied to bottle caps or labels, which were highly effective at boosting sales. Senūta notes that such promotions would be illegal today but were profitable at the time.
Political advertising also rose in prominence, peaking during the 2002 election when Rolandas Paksas was elected president.
The 2004 presidential campaign for Petras Auštrevičius became another notable example, with the catchy tune “For Petras” remembered to this day.
Senūta observes that Lithuania’s public relations industry remains larger than traditional advertising, with many in professional circles crediting PR efforts for electoral outcomes, especially the 2002 election of Paksas.
Newsletter
Every Friday morning.
