Russian Cyrillic Optical Illusion

Hey people! We had some issues with our RSS feed last few days, that prevented the feed from updating with newest articles, thus resulting in your widgets not showing the latest illusion. Hopefully Feedburner fixed it, and we should be operating in full capacity again. If you encounter something fishy, be sure to drop us a line. In the mean time check this ad for a Russian Vodka. Can you read what is says? Is it Cyrillic? Explanation after the jump…


Advertising company that goes under the name of “Lowe Bull” (South Africa), produced an interesting advertisement for this Russian Vodka, and placed it on the walls facing bathroom mirrors in pubs and clubs. If you look directly to the poster, you’ll probably only see some mumbo-jumbo in Cyrillic Alphabet. Right after you give up, use the toilet, and are just about to wash your hands or face, you look at the mirror in front you.

Everything is clear now, and you haven’t got a slightest problem reading the poster. It says: “Men Don’t Drink and Drive“. How could you missed it the first time, you ask yourself? Was it because you were so drunk, and only after washing your face it got you sober enough to read it? Probably it hits you then. You finally understand how they fooled you, and that everything was just a mind trick and an illusion. Never the less, the message got through to you, and you’ll surely remember this ad.

I have to give props to the person responsible for this creative advertising idea. Like I always repeat myself, optical illusions in adverting are guaranteed way to get some exposure for your message. Be sure to remember this if you work for a media company.

Boy, this was probably the longest post I wrote this years. Feels good to see so much of the new content, doesn’t it? You can see a zoomed mirror photo of previous Russian ad, below.

30 Replies to “Russian Cyrillic Optical Illusion”

  1. In fact it says ‘Real men don’t drink and drive.’ I could read it before I had seen the post, but I think it’s a nice illusion anyway.

  2. I like this. If folks have to work at reading it, maybe they’ll remember it. Keep up the good work.

  3. Haha cool I’ve seen some of these types of ads. Not exactly an illusion but yeah..

    Pretty good though.

    Happy April Fool’s Day!!

  4. Yup, its so easy *no offense*!

    Have you’ve got the news on the April Fool computer worm? I’ve got a post on it if you wanna know…

  5. Very cute.. BUT —

    As a Russian – I would say that it’s closer to Ukranian illusion – not a Russian one.

    Russian language does NOT have “I” letter in it and Ukranian does.

    -V.

  6. Actually I think it is an optical illusion how most people at first glance wouldn’t notice it and when you look in the mirror you do.

  7. Haha, that’s funny, and probably a funnier and more pointed when the viewer has a nice buzz going and sees it in the mirror at the bar and realizes how buzzed they really are.

  8. I must be somewhat dyslexic.. I was able to read it immediately w/o seeing the other pictures below..

  9. I hate it! This isn’t a illusion!! I thought you would only put illusions on! What’s wrong with you?!!!!???!

    April Fools!

    I was just kidding, this is an awesome illusion, I could read from the beginning though. But it was a good idea to put it in washrooms like that.

  10. love the illusion-ish advertisement
    love the site too~

    but its not cryptic, its russian letters.. they just dont make any sence >3

  11. vurdlak is there any reason why my comment has not been accepted multiple times when i have some constructive criticism for you? were they too long or something?

    cause i left a nice comment yesterday, just suggesting that you can look up some more info for some of your posts where you ask your readers to help you. good job on this one.

    and hopefully you’ll actually accept this comment….

  12. I am a real man…sometimes I drink to get away from the voices…sometimes I drive to get away from the castrating women who so relentlessly hound me with tales I really don’t give a rats ass about….where is the quietude..Oh I drink coffee in the morning and just a little splash of something something on top of that sometimes….but never enough to run up over the side walk and damage someones property and I don’t have the only green can in the neighborhood and those dents are old….

  13. Even if you look directly to the poster, you won’t see Russian cyrillic alphabet. In russian there’s no “I” letter. Russians use the “mirrored N” instead. The alphabet you see could be Ukrainian or Belarussian, as far as I know.

  14. was anyone else able to read that without even realising it’s backwards…?
    Does that mean there’s something wrong with my brain?

    ^^^^ XD

    cool ad!!

  15. That’s not Russian! I can read Russian an that writing makes no sense! It dous not even have the letter I in it. It’s munbo jumbo.

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