TV host Yanina Sokolova apologizes for her foundation's controversial ads, calls it "unacceptable"

TV host Yanina Sokolova apologized for the controversial ads for the Yanina Sokolova Foundation and admitted on Facebook that they are "unacceptable in our time".

"I bear personal responsibility for the advertising campaign that is conceptually unacceptable in our time. I approved it after it was proposed by the advertising agency McCann Kyiv. I would like to personally apologize to everyone who was affected by our idea in the way opposite to what was intended," the host wrote.

She explained that earlier this month, the Yanina Sokolova Foundation launched a street ad campaign to encourage people to seek mental health assistance. The billboards were saying the phrases most often said by Ukrainians contacting the mental health hotline "Life is Worth It".

The statements were as follows:

• "No point in living";
• "It will only get worse";
• "No way out of depression."

"Our partners' and our plan, which the agency's psychologists helped devise, was that a person would read their own thoughts on the billboard, relate to them and see that there is a way out, as written below on the billboard, and would call our psychologists at 5522 and get help," wrote Sokolova.

She said that they and their partners were mistaken. People were outraged by this. Social media users have pointed out that the designers of the ads seemed to be asserting people's pessimistic thoughts.

According to Yanina Sokolova, the ads are already being removed from billboards. They will be replaced by ads based on ideas and suggestions by the audience.

"This will probably be the first mental health ad campaign created by Ukrainians themselves," the host added.