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Who knew consumerism and communism once went hand in hand?
In advertising circles in the 1960s, Estonian entrepreneur Peedu Ojamaa was considered so good that he "could make Eskimos dance the polka". That his work took place in the confines of the Soviet Union, at a time when products were scarce and people were unable to make purchases, didn't dampen his business or his enthusiasm.
The Gold Spinners tells the ultimate tale of an unnecessary industry, and of the only man empowered to sell the needless to the needy. Ojamaa's film studio, Eesti Reklaamfilm, was the only one making ads within the USSR, and combined the style of Western commercials with the sensibilities of socialism to spruik items not only out of reach, but often purely imaginary.
Filled with the hilarious original advertisements and propelled by a wry sense of humour, this is an enlightening, irreverent chronicle of marketing at its most unusual.