Like India, Russia is a country of opposites. Being gay is an indictable offence. Bloggers getting more than 3,000 visits a day have to register with the government’s media monitoring agency. NGOs that receive funding from abroad have to register as “foreign agents”…

…And Russian creativity is getting on with the job of exploring the edges of edginess, experimenting with freedoms that creatives in other countries can only envy.

Yes, one of those edges is creative technology. Some of the most creative uses of technology in advertising this year have been Russian.

In May, Leo Burnett Moscow let people earn free travel points by pointing their smartphones at a plane flying overhead.

WPP owned Russian agency, Hungry Boy, used drones to remind workers in high rise offices that they could buy lunch at Wokker.

And Russian agency, Heads and Hands, developed a Groslch beer bottle that unlocks the movie you want to watch while drinking it.

But later in the year, Russian creativity began to inject excitement into traditional advertising too.

The print ads above by Russian agency, Media Storm, demonstrate the desirable French-ness of La Frivole lingerie.

The Farm of Milk and Honey is as back to nature as you can get, an Animal Welfare Approved (AWA), small, grass-based, organically managed micro-dairy in Washington, Vermont producing “high-quality, delicious, creamy raw milk that is not homogenized (i.e., the “cream on top” kind!) or pasteurized, raw honey and pastured pork products. Depot WPF is its branding agency. Depot WPF is in Russia.

Creative agency UNIQA C.E developed Revenge of Ex as a concept that blurs the edges of media, techniques and product categories. As a (rather witty) self-promotion, it underscores the agency’s aptitude for crossing the borders (from packaging to experiential advertising to direct mail) to create successful ideas “in the world where almost all successful projects are on the intersection of different areas (especially on digital) rather than lying in one – the opposite to traditional 20th century projects.”

It also blends fine art with handmade crafts and product with magic, modern advertising with ancient folklore (the earliest form of advertising we know). The red potion added to someone’s food or drink will connect that person with the doll…and then you hurt the doll.