Tuesday, July 29

David Duchovny's Russian Beer Ad Goes Viral

The commercial, featuring the slogan, 'You [Russians] have something to be proud of,' attracted over 1.7 million views in the first 4 days.

Featuring the slogan, "You [Russians] have something to be proud of," the commercial was published last Friday on the YouTube channel of the beer brand Sibirskaya Korona (Siberian Crown), manufactured by Sun InBev. It advertises a non-alcoholic kind of Siberian Crown beer.

The Russian business daily Vedomosti reported that Duchovny was chosen to be featured in the commercial based on a Russian focus group and was second on the list after Leonardo DiCaprio. He came out ahead of Vincent Cassel and Johnny Depp.


 The report estimated the budget of the commercial, which hasn't been disclosed, to be about $1.5 million, of which $1 million was Duchovny's fee.

The commercial was published just a few days after changes to the Russian law came into effect, allowing beer advertisement at sports events after a period of a complete ban. However, Sun InBev said it didn't plan a version of the commercial for regular beer and this one was only intended for an online release.

Many in Russia believe that Duchovny has Russian roots, but his ancestors were actually Jews from Poland and Ukraine. The timing of the video couldn't be more controversial, considering the international condemnation of Russia after a Malaysian airliner went down over eastern Ukraine this month, killing 298 people on board. U.S. and Ukrainian officials have said a Russian-made missile system was used to shoot down the plane from rebel territory. Russia and the rebels have disputed the allegations and blamed Ukraine for the crash.

"This is the country where I was born and raised," Duchovny says at the start of the 2½-minute video. "But there is another country, where I got my family name from. And sometimes I wonder: What if things turned out differently? What if I were Russian?"

But Duchovny's family emigrated from Ukraine, not Russia. He may not have known when he signed up for the commercial job earlier this year, but he apparently did before it was produced. "I grew up thinking I was Russian only to find recently that I've been Ukrainian all along. Never too late to change," he said in a Twitter posting on April 4.

The difference between Ukrainians and Russians is central to the struggle between pro-Russian rebels and the Ukrainian government. Ethnic Russian rebels in the east and south of Ukraine identify with Russia.

Duchovny tweeted a photo on May 30, apparently taken while he was producing the scene where he imagined he was a Russian cosmonaut. "Ground control to Major Ivan," he tweeted. He also imagines himself to be a Russian ballet choreographer, a Russian-speaking actor and a Russian rocker with a mullet.

"Could I still be among the stars?" Duchovny asks in the video. "How would I surround myself with beauty? What role could I have played? Would my smile be known the world over?"


Joshua Edwards, an assistant to Duchovny manager Melanie Greene, said Monday that Greene was working on a response to the controversy, but Edwards later said it would only be given to TMZ.

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