As cringe as this video is, it's not even the worst recruitment ad I've seen recently from the Russians. It is telling though how abysmal their recruitment efforts are that their target audience with this ad is middle-aged men with some military experience.
Source: 444 (Hungary)
According to the video posted on Twitter by Francis Scarr, who works for the BBC's Russian media monitoring department, Russian fathers are now being motivated to go to war because they will then be able to buy their children the long-desired smartphone.
The mood of the video is strongly reminiscent of a mixture of camp reality and a bad parody of Family Secrets with amateur actors, showing family feuds and dramas, but it seems to be the Russian reality.
After the main character's little girl throws her savings into the piggy bank, saying that she doesn't need much to buy the phone, her father knocks on her room to tell her that she hasn't received her salary yet again(!). The girl sadly gives her money to the father, who then listens at the door of the room as his daughter's girlfriend talks about how her father is a veteran, but he couldn't get used to civilian life, so he went to fight as a volunteer. Then the listening father pulls himself together, puts on a jacket and walks out the door, where he will re-enter six months later, already in uniform and with a smartphone in hand.
Curtain, more precisely Russian flag, applause, end.
And more likely, because many Russian recruits aren't being paid, he'll have to do this.
