In recent weeks, several polling organizations have released survey data on Russians’ attitudes toward Dmitry Medvedev and his performance. We all understand perfectly well what has sparked such interest from sociologists: ACF’s investigative film “He Is Not Dimon to You”, which as of yesterday had already passed 20 million views on YouTube.
ACF’s own polling team, of course, also followed our fellow citizens’ attitudes toward both the film and its main subject very closely. We conducted two nationwide surveys—one in March and one in April—to track how the situation was developing over time. And now we’re ready to show you the results.
Interesting, isn’t it? The film was released on March 2. By mid-March, it seemed like absolutely everyone had already seen it. At least that’s how it seemed to us—and probably to you too. Certainly all the readers of this blog. And all their friends. And all their friends’ friends. It always feels that way—but perception is very deceptive when you try to judge an enormous society based on your narrow circle of acquaintances. In reality, look: from mid-March to mid-April, the film’s audience doubled. Thanks to people who took the trouble to send it to friends and show it to colleagues—and, of course, thanks to the March 26 rallies—more than a third of Russians learned about “He Is Not Dimon to You,” almost twice as many as a month earlier. This chart once again tells us what we’ve often said: the feeling that everyone has already seen/heard/read everything is misleading. It always makes sense to keep sharing videos and posts; they will always find a new, appreciative audience. And even now, after 20 million views, there are still 63% of Russians who absolutely need to be shown “He Is Not Dimon to You”!
Notice how interestingly information spreads. Like ripples on water. Among those who “know” about the film and those who have “heard something” about it, the proportions are completely stable: the same share has already watched it, plans to watch it, or does not plan to watch it. Which means that if the number of people informed about the film doubled over the course of a month, then the number who have watched it also doubled—and, even more importantly, the number of people who are still going to watch it doubled as well. Tell people about the film—it works.
The film itself works too—as a sharp political tool. We poke Dmitry Medvedev’s approval rating with it, and that rating deflates. The slide shows exactly how.
We were also very interested to find out whether people understood who made the film. We asked honestly, with no prompts and no leading answer choices, and here’s what we got:
In other words, nearly two-thirds of those who know about “He Is Not Dimon to You” do not even associate it with Alexei Navalny and ACF. That’s not a problem. What matters is that the film works!
And probably the clearest table of all today:
Here we compare attitudes toward Dmitry Medvedev among those who “know” about our film or have “heard something” about it, and among everyone else. As you can see, “everyone else” is not living with their eyes and ears shut, and they harbor no particular illusions about Medvedev. Even so, it still makes sense to show them the film—familiarity with it has a small but statistically significant effect on voters’ attitudes toward the chairman of the United Russia party.
That is also very clearly visible on the final slide:
So even though it may seem like “everyone around you has already watched it,” let’s keep spreading it.
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