The Phenomenon of Suffering in Contemporary Russian TV Advertising

The paper deals with the phenomenon of suffering in the Russian advertising. The authors consider suffering featured in TV commercials from different angles: psychological, philosophical, and cultural-and-historical. Five adverts broadcast on popular Russian entertainment TV channels STS and TNT in December 2023 have been analyzed. The main research methods employed were the phenomenological method and the content analysis method. What emerged from the research was an understanding that modern Russian advertising is a complex multicultural product, incorporating ideas and images from different cultures. Advertising can therefore influence people’s views and behaviour without becoming an instrument to manipulate human consciousness. The ways of coping with suffering presented in advertising show that people have learnt to perceive periods of suffering as “points of spiritual growth”, as the generation of creative energy, as a reflection on their life path, as an opportunity to change their life strategy and as a global audit of their life “project”.