“the nice Zelensky” against “the big bad Putin”, or an image battle won in a few days

“Your president is there. We are all there: the soldiers, the citizens too. We are all there. We are there to defend our country, our Ukraine.” In the aftermath of the Russian offensive, Volodymyr Zelensky addresses the Ukrainians in a short film shot in the streets of Kiev. The video quickly went viral: it was seen by nearly 15 million people.

For this portrait dedicated to him by “Complément d’Enquête” on Thursday March 10, an influence marketing specialist analyzed the exponential evolution of the Ukrainian president’s Instagram account. With 15 million followers and an influencer rating of 5 out of 5, “we are talking about someone who is really extremely popular on social networks”. From “rarely seen for a politician”, emphasizes Jérémy Boissinot. In three weeks, he touched “more than four times the audience of Emmanuel Macron”.

“We are really in a contrast, for international public opinion, with ‘the big bad Putin’ and ‘the nice Zelensky’. If tomorrow he were to be killed in bombings or by the Russians, it would have a terrible impact , and that gives him a form of defense that is absolutely tremendous.”

Jérémy Boissinot, influencer marketing specialist

to “Further investigation”

“What is brilliant in his communication”, analyzes the specialist, it is also “the fact that he himself takes the videos” at a press conference, unlike most politicians. What “gives him a super powerful authenticity, and a very human side”.

And to underline the physical proximity of the Ukrainian president with his ministers, as with journalists during a press conference in a bunker. Here again, “the contrast with Putin at the end of his large table, isolated”, is striking. A way to show that “not only does he manage the thing, he is there, he films himself, but he is not alone”.

Excerpt from “Zelensky, the clown who became a warlord”, a document published in “Complément d’Enquête” on March 10, 2022.

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