Online retailer's manifest-commercial starring 102-year old #rezist advocate stirs fiery debate in Romania

An advertising campaign launched by eMAG, Romania’s biggest online retailer, to mark 30 years since the fall of the communist regime and starring 102 years old philosopher Mihai Șora, has stirred fiery debates in social media.

In the commercial, Șora tells a story about how, when he was 30, the installation of the communist regime stole his freedom and how he now celebrates 30 years of freedom. “Freedom every day,” is the campaign’s slogan.

Mihai Șora is one of the promoters of the #rezist movement in Romania and an active participant in the protests against the government and the ruling Social Democratic Party (PSD), considered by many an heir of the Communist Party.

Some criticized Șora’s appearance in this campaign, saying that he was not a victim of the communist regime, as suggested by the commercial, and even worked for the regime in his youth. Various commentators accused the advertising agency that produced the spot, Papaya Advertising, for mystifying the historic truth. However, others jumped to defend Șora and said he didn’t deserve to be attacked like this and portrayed as a beneficiary of the communist regime.

With all the controversy around it, the campaign became viral. Launched on October 1, the campaign’s video had over one million views on Youtube and over 150,000 views on Facebook. Thousands of negative as well as positive comments were posted on YouTube and on the Facebook pages of eMAG, Mihai Șora, and Papaya Advertising.

Mihai Șora’s story in the commercial sounds like this: “I was 30 years old when life stopped, when the curtains fell and walls started to be erected. I was 30 when they sentenced all to fear, and our children to hunger and cold. They sentenced us to darkness, a blackout from which many tried to escape, but few made it. I was 30 when I lost the thing I held most dear: my freedom. Allow me to celebrate it now, 30 years after winning it back, a thing that I have been doing every day, since then. Happy birthday, my dears!”

Some accused Șora of hypocrisy, bringing up his communist past. “I hate lies and imposture. When at 30 you were a member of the French Communist Party, when at 32, in 1948, you were returning as a member of a communist party in the newly installed Popular Republic of Romania, from where the persecuted ones were trying to escape, when your first job after repatriation was, for 3-4 years, in the Foreign Affairs Ministry led by Ana Pauker, after the purge of Neagu Djuvara, Constantin Karadja or Alexandru Paleologu, when for 15 years you were editor in chief of the State Publishing House for Literature and Art, while Blaga or Arghezi were marginalized and Noica was in prison, don’t you tell us how you suffered under communism!” 43-year old philologist Adrian Papahagi wrote on Facebook.