My personal opinion about IShowSpeed’s visit to Latvia. About how to campaign “properly” at a time when one election is already over, but the next election’s official campaign period has not yet begun.
The first social media uproar has passed, so we can calmly watch the 33‑minute shortened YouTube video and analyze it step by step. As we already heard from “Panorāma”, Latvia will pay the social media star 30,000 euros for this visit. I’d say that’s not a lot or in any way exaggerated, but I would ask another question: what for?
Although I am “in favor” of various activities to improve Latvia’s image and attract investors and tourists, I must admit that, unfortunately, I don’t see how through an IShowSpeed such as the one who was in Latvia, anyone could actually be attracted. From the whole video we basically see children, politicians, a kids’ idol eating something in Āgenskalns market and mocking our national symbols. How exactly that could contribute to an influx of investors or tourists – I don’t see it. What I do see is a lot of something else, specifically the Union of Greens and Farmers’ (ZZS) attempts to reach a youth audience. As we can see from the municipal election results, most clearly in Jelgava but also elsewhere, this is the audience ZZS is most lacking. What’s more, now that one election is over, but the Saeima election campaign period has not yet begun, expenses spent on various PR services are not counted towards party spending “limits”, so one can have fun to one’s heart’s content. More simply put, in my view ZZS has decided to cover part of its expenses from the LIAA budget rather than from its own pocket. I’ll explain why I think so.
First, we should start with the fact that the headlines saying that Minister of Economics Viktors Valainis greeted IShowSpeed at the airport are inaccurate. It wasn’t Valainis who greeted him, but as we see in the video at second 34, at the FBO Rīga private terminal he was greeted by a young guy named Romāns Nozdrins. Of course, no one knows him, except those who have worked in the minister’s office, like me, for example. Together with his staff, Romāns Nozdrins films and edits most of the videos for Valainis’s social networks, also goes along on regional visits, on the minister’s visits to various companies, and films press conferences in the ministry itself. He works with all the best‑known Latvian influencers, I assume also with Edgars Bāliņš, whom we see later in this video and who thought it was a good idea to post on X that the Pope, just like Speed, is also an idol of stupid people, only he didn’t manage to do a somersault at the Freedom Monument.
Nozdrins founded his company FAM3 in mid‑2021 and by the end of the year it had a turnover of 12,000 euros. But in 2022, when the Saeima elections took place, his turnover was already 103,700 euros, a year later – 221,700 euros, and last year – 336,600 euros, earning 81,800 euros in net profit. I’m sure he has other clients besides ZZS, but the fact that this party is his, so to speak, “anchor tenant” is a fact. He has even donated 5 euros to the Latvian Farmers’ Union, according to the Anti-Corruption Bureau database. If that information isn’t enough, you can learn more about him in the mass media – or rather, in one medium. Which one? You don’t have to be Sherlock Holmes to guess – NRA, of course. If you don’t read the interview, I’ll sketch it out: the conversation is not only with Romāns, but also with another influencer and Romāns’s friend Andrejs Černuckis (Andrew_wawe or andrejko.epta). Among other things, he has 5 million followers on Instagram and, oddly enough, under contacts the email listed is that of Romāns’s company SIA FAM3.
So, it was not Minister Valainis who greeted the famous Speed, but Romāns. Next we see Valainis in the video together with a little group of young people and children. Who are they? Those who have ever been to the FBO Riga terminal know that no random, unscheduled children and youths can appear there out of thin air. But sure – a children’s idol is greeted by children, everyone is happy. Then at 1:06 we see that very same Andrejko “epta”, rolling out the red carpet, which of course is needed for his personal social networks, not for Latvia’s visibility.
The minister leaves, returns to the cabinet meeting, and we move on to the episode in Āgenskalns market, where the famous streamer tastes something unfamiliar. For example, smoked goods from “Līko Smeķis”, pickled vegetables from the “Vārpas” farm. Of course, if there was any agreement with the stalls to be visited, I am not aware of it, but I would find it interesting to know exactly how these particular vendors were chosen. As if smoked meats and vegetables were some kind of super‑unique products that couldn’t have been chosen from other farms as well, not only from Līko Smeķis co‑owner Erlends Līks, who in 2021 ran in the municipal elections from New Unity, or from Vārpas, which in the previous two years was the only farm that could supply vegetables for Riga school catering tenders. Beer, of course, is also available in Āgenskalns market only from the Valmiera guys. And so as not to offend the third coalition partner, naturally IShowSpeed also meets with the Progressive mayor Viesturs Kleinbergs, who was on the livestream but has been cut from the final video, just like Mairis Briedis. Meanwhile, the Romāns I mentioned, in a white T‑shirt with his technical support entourage, can be spotted at every turn.
Next let’s turn to the product placement section. At 12:20 we see the purest form of gambling advertising from the site Lucky Latvian, whose logo in the center has even been pulled in closer. I didn’t know what Lucky Latvian was, so I went to take a look – it’s a site that doesn’t run gambling itself, but just promotes others. There is not a single reference on the site to any SIA that owns it, but the depths of the internet know everything, so we can say fairly confidently that the company managing it belongs to the head of the Latvian Golf Federation, Jānis Trēgers, about whom you can learn more from a pietiek.com reader, and to Mārtiņš Tanne. Gambling advertising for free, and to children and young people, at that? I will never believe it.
Then the video moves to a bread‑baking place, and since this happens using the same car that brought the guest and the minister from the airport, we see that in the minister’s place, as Speed’s seatmate, now sits the Romāns I already mentioned. So who bakes bread in Latvia? Judging from the video, we have one super‑unique bread baker – SIA Graudu Spēks. The company belongs to Raimonds Biedrītis and Liene Pundore. All respect to baker Raimonds Biedrītis – a true master – but he owns only 10% of the company, which, in case anyone had any doubts, is registered in Jelgava and belongs to Liene Pundore – our and Viktors’s peer; apparently we finished school in Jelgava in the same year. Closer, in Riga, apparently there are no good bread bakers. Liene Pundore works at Jelgava municipality as a business support specialist, but before that she worked at the State Revenue Service for two years – so she had to submit an official’s declaration from which we see that she has two brothers – Mārtiņš Pundors and Nauris Pundors, both civil servants. Mārtiņš worked 20 years at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in the diplomatic corps, but Nauris Pundors still works in state institutions, also already for 20 years. His declaration shows that he works at the State Digital Development Agency (VDAA) and in Jelgava municipality as a member of the procurement commission, and is also active in Jelgava’s education administration, where his wife Dita also works. It has to be said that managing to involve Jelgava municipal employees in everything, including the IShowSpeed event, is an art. Bravo, top‑level piloting!
You could say I’m already tired of describing this kolkhoz, but the video is only halfway through. Next we have to return again to the product placement solution. At the beginning of minute 18 we see a person in a lion costume representing… the Lithuanian snack brand AHA. It’s not really clear whether in Latvia there wasn’t a single local snack brand interested in such a large youth audience, and why the Investment and Development Agency of Latvia (LIAA) is paying at all for advertising a Lithuanian brand. This video fragment is particularly noteworthy because the busy people forgot how sensitive microphones are, and the listeners can also hear what’s happening in the background at 18:36. For example, while Lithuanian snacks are in close‑up, the Latvian technical staff are discussing how one of them only smokes marijuana after training, and the two can’t figure out what smells like weed:
“I’m definitely not high. Something here smells like weed, but it’s not us.”
What happens next is already well known – former president and Green–Farmer Raimonds Vējonis takes part in the mockery of the Freedom Monument; I am sure we’ll see him on candidate lists again in a year. And if this foreign‑shame episode is not enough for you, you can skip to minute 27 of the video to see how, on the famous balcony of the Latvian Radio building, some lady offers IShowSpeed the chance to feel like the President, because “speech are happening here when we got the independence and stuff like that”, while the main player Romāns is in the background eating his little sandwich.
At the end of the video, in that same FBO Riga terminal, the main hero is presented with the bread he baked, and then in the terminal, just as with greeting him, only Romāns is allowed to see him off.
Some might think that I’m exaggerating, and if so, I suggest watching the IShowSpeed videos from Estonia and Lithuania as well. What did he try out in Estonia? Things that could appeal to tourists and that the whole nation is likely proud of: a sauna, water sports, a Bolt Food robot, a rally car ride, and more. What did Lithuania offer? Lithuania made maximum use of the short video to attract tourists: it started with cold beet soup, then discus throwing with an Olympian, then folk songs in national costumes, a TV tower visit with an observation deck, fighting in medieval outfits, a hot air balloon, and basketball. What did we have in Latvia? A ZZS campaign paid for with LIAA money, with the entertainment consisting of jumping around on the Freedom Monument and eating food from farms owned by people close to those in power. Plus gambling and weed advertising.
Among other things, the question of technical support remains open – organization, filming, transport… Of course, I asked this question both to Minister Valainis’s adviser and to Romāns Nozdrins himself, but one single question – who paid for the technical side and how much – turned out to be too complicated to answer in more than 24 hours. Maybe they need to convene a party board meeting to decide how best to answer, or whether to answer at all, but given the number of people involved, I think it could cost about as much as LIAA paid the main hero.
Originally published at https://inc-baltics.com/agitacijas-optimizesanas-eksperti-ka-pareizi-agitet-laika-kad-vienas-velesanas-jau-beigusas-bet-lidz-nakamajam-vel-ir-laiks/
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