Emily Brown
A bizarre Christmas advert from Russia doesn't quite offer the festive cheer you might expect as it shows a girl having to eat her pet hamster.
It's hard to avoid seeing Christmas adverts at the moment, with almost every TV channel and social media post interspersed with products and brands promising festivity, joy and sparkle over the Christmas weekend.
The ads do help to get you in the Christmas spirit - it's not the festive season until we see the Coca Cola truck, after all - but the video broadcast by Russian television network RT offers less sparkle, and more horror. You've been warned:
Advert
Don't be fooled by the beginning of the ad, because things do genuinely get off to quite a cute start as the sound of 'Silent Night' rings out and we see a happy family celebrating in their home, with their tree nicely decorated with Christmas lights.
A little girl grins as she's surprised with an adorable pet hamster wearing a red bow, and a caption over the video reads: "Europe, Christmas 2021."
The scene then cuts to the next year, aka this Christmas. Instead of all the twinkly, colourful lights, the family are wrapped up against the cold and are relying on head torches and candles for light - seemingly a nod to energy prices which skyrocketed following the outbreak of war in Ukraine.
Rather than having to rely on the grid to power their Christmas lights, the family utilise the hamster's exercise wheel and allow the little creature to light up the room by running.
One year on, the scene is even more bleak. The tree is somehow already dead, the windows are apparently broken and are letting in gusts of freezing wind, and the Christmas meal is a bowl of soup - but not just any soup.
As the young girl looks at the meal with disgust, the dad finds something strange in his food and pulls out the recognisable red bow first seen on the hamster two years prior. Realising what's happened, he runs to throw up.
The advert comes to an end with the words 'Merry Anti-Russian Christmas', and adds: "If your media doesn't tell you where this is all going, RT is available via VPN."
Social media users have been left baffled by the video after it started to do the rounds online, with one Twitter user born in Ukraine writing: "Propaganda ads coming out on Russian channels available online in Europe to instill fear in Europeans through energy terrorism. The message: In a year, Europeans will have to resort to eating their own pets unless they appease Putin now."
Another viewer joked: "We’re cutting back this year - it’s stuffed roasted rats. Might used the bones for soup tomorrow."
Russia has claimed Ukraine and its allies are set for a 'long confrontation' with Russia if the country keeps getting support in the ongoing war.