An idea just hit me regarding crude Soviet propaganda (such as, under the furniture ad on the wall of a building across the street from me is a huge "WE ARE BUILDING COMMUNISM" with a bunch of giant workers). It seems like they kept trying to use the same kind of propaganda that worked on the unsophisticated peasants of the early Soviet era on the educated urbanized classes of the late era. It became silly.
[WS:] An excellent point, indeed. I think that was what most people found especially insulting about the Soviet-style propaganda, being treated like a bunch of morons. Another annoying aspect was a very formulaic approach - basically recitations of the same formulae that were not related to anything in the "real life" as seen by most people. It was almost like signaling "now a word from our sponsors," followed by something totally unconnected but actually worth watching (like a movie or a play.)
What I find difficult to understand, however, is that people rejected these formulaic messages of Soviet propaganda, but swallow similar or greater idiocies raw when it comes to advertisement and commercials. Listening to or singing songs about Great Leaders and Heroic Times may be a bit overzealous or naïve, but that is what people have been throughout recorded history. However, listening to songs about toilet paper, laundry detergent or house appliances borders on sheer cretinism.
Wojtek