AdMe, an advertising online portal, announced recently that MTS (one of Russia’s Big Three mobile operators) and MTS’s advertising partner MindShare were trying to exert some pressure on it.

AdMe representatives report the two-day harassment started when the company compared MTS logo to a ball. For one, MTS was unhappy with AdMe’s news headline that read, ‘MTS shows another ball.’

Meanwhile, the Russian federal TV channels are now broadcasting ads on MTS special winter offer called MTS Bonus. At some point, two logos (each of which has an ovoid shape) appear in these ads.

The online advertising portal says MTS representatives strongly recommend AdMe’s management to edit the headline and even try to threaten the company.

At first, requests placed by MTS press secretary Elena Kruchinina were quite innocuous: she only asked to change the headline ‘in order to avoid greater dissatisfaction of MTS management.’ However, MindShare got involved later on. AdMe insists that MindShare Media Buying Director Alexander Maizelis sent them a number of written requests regarding the headline and then called the agency himself. When AdMe refused to edit the headline in any way, he said that ‘this was a decision with a price, and this price would have to be paid.’