Draft:MegaFon

Credits

Compiled by
Yarik and KosMir

Video captures courtesy of
Hungary Commercial Logos, Официальный аккаунт 31 канала и М1, Рекламная Пауза

Background

MegaFon (Russian: МегаФон) is the second largest mobile phone operator and the third largest telecom operator in Russia, headquartered in Moscow. It works in the GSM, UMTS and LTE standard and serves 62.1 million subscribers in Russia and 1.6 million in Tajikistan. Founded in summer 1993, it was originally known as North-West GSM (Северо-Западный GSM) until May 7, 2002, when it renamed itself to its current name while acquiring several regional companies, becoming the first GSM company in Russia to cover all its territory. The name "MegaFon" in Russian is spelled and pronounced exactly like the Russian word for megaphone; other connotations are mega- as "big" and fon as "telephone".

North-West GSM

Contents   Tag (1993-2002)

MegaFon

Contents 1st Tag (2002-2003) 2nd Tag (2002-2003)

North-West GSM

Tag (1993-2002)

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Visuals: On a white background, there's a black silhouette of a man talking on a mobile phone and resting his foot on a dodger blue horizontal bar that contains the white text "Северо-Западный GSM", located under the black large, rounded letters "GSM" with a red line connected to the "M" and the text "North-West" above them.

Variants:

• In most cases, the logo transitions from the ending of an animated sequence in the commercial; for example: In the roaming commercial, when the Leaning Tower of Pisa fell to the ground, it transforms into the "GSM" letters, with a blue shadow transforming into the text bar as the other parts of the logo simply fade in.
• On the commercial spoofing Little Red Riding Hood (where the logo is contained within a rounded rectangle at the bottom-left corner), the "North-West" text is set in a Century Gothic-esque font, and the bar text is in a regular shade of blue.
• Later commercials have "North-West" set in Arial Rounded MT Bold font.
  • Occasionally, the "GSM" letters of the white text contained within a bar are also set in ITC Avant Garde Gothic.
• On one of the live-action commercials from 1998, the bottom-right corner of the footage folds up (a la SC Johnson) to reveal a white background with a small North-West GSM logo.
• Another live-action commercial from the said year has the logo superimposed at the upper-left corner when the footage freeze-frames, with the black stacked text "МОБИЛЬНАЯ СВЯЗЬ НОВОГО ПОКОЛЕНИЯ", with a white glow, sliding across the screen at the bottom and shining.

Technique: A still, digital graphic; originally, digital ink-and-paint traditional animation.

Audio: Just a Russian male announcer over the background music (which is moslty a truimphant spy fanfare).

MegaFon

1st Tag (2002-2003)

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Visuals: Superimposed onto the ending of the commercial is a circle-shaped emblem divided into two unequal segments; the left segment, colored green, has a dot near the top (depicting the profile of a person's face, with line dividing the sectors being the nose and forehead), and the right one, colored indigo, has three dots in one line near the bottom (depicting the space or the handset, where words are heard). Next to it is the indigo text "МЕГАФОН" set in a wide, futuristic font.

Variants:

• On certain commercials like the regional 2002 GSM Lite one from Rostov-on-Don and "МегаПриз", the text says "МЕГАФОНGSM".
• On the MegaFon Favorit commercial "В апреле мы выводим новую услугу…", the whole logo is lawn green.

Technique: A digital graphic.

Audio: Just the ending of the commercial.

Audio Variant: The 2002 Christmas/New 2003 Year commercial has a chorus singing "Есть МегаФон, и радость общения!" over a dance-pop tune with jingle bells.

Availability: Mostly seen on their regional (outside of Moscow) commercials from this time period. Later on, it also started to appear on Moscow commercials mostly from 2003.

2nd Tag (2002-2003)

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Visuals: On a green background, the screen flips downwards to reveal a shady white downward arc with a slightly modified version of the MegaFon logo from the previous tag near the top; the segmented line has rounded edges at the center, the dots are slightly smaller and the font of the text is less wider and slightly bolder. Sometimes, the phone number appears below the logo.

Later Variant: Later commercials simply have the MegaFon logo at the middle on a white background, sometimes superimposed onto the ending of the commercial.

Technique: Computer animation.

Audio: A male announcer saying "МегаФон-Москва" over background music, or simply the ending of the commercial.

Availability: Used in tandem with the previous tag, it appeared on their Moscow commercials from this time period.