What happened
In October 2017, the hashtag #ЖизньНалаживается, also known as #LifeIsImproving, appeared on Instagram. Celebrities with large audiences posted under it. According to a list compiled by the MediaLeaks project, participants included Anna Khilkevich, Anna Semenovich, Olga Buzova and Nyusha. The posts described improvements in Moscow and the country: a more beautiful city, less bureaucracy, better lighting and fewer traffic jams.
The posts gathered between 14 thousand and more than a quarter million likes. The reach was massive, so the campaign quickly became noticeable.
Origin and versions
The exact initiator of the campaign is not named. A Russian outlet noticed the hashtag in celebrities' accounts, and journalists from the Russian service of the BBC, citing three sources, reported that the campaign may have been part of a pre-election effort ahead of the presidential election in March 2018 and coordinated by state structures. A possible involvement of a PR agency was also mentioned.
These claims are unconfirmed, and the article presents them only as media reports. Versions about coordination remain versions.
User response
Almost immediately, users began using the same hashtag ironically. They posted photos and news about problems: trash near hospitals and undeveloped neighborhoods in other cities, for example in Perm and Astrakhan. The English-language outlet The Moscow Times described the reaction as bewilderment among Muscovite users, who did not recognize the familiar picture of city life in the hashtag.
The official tone of the posts thus became a prompt for mass commentary, not just for approval.
Why the phrase became a meme
The phrase relied on the contrast between a uniformly positive tone and real news. When posts about well-being sit next to reports of problems, the reader sees the gap and starts commenting on it themselves. The caption “life is getting better” is attached to any situation that contradicts the claimed well-being.
That is why the term took hold as a label for inappropriate displays of well-being. It transfers easily to different topics because it rests on a simple juxtaposition rather than on a specific event.
Image
The catalog lists a series of celebrity posts, but the saved file shows not a screenshot of posts but a Soviet poster: a woman in a light headscarf presses a hand to her forehead and gazes into the distance next to a car, against a backdrop of power lines and a field of wheat ears. At the bottom is the caption “Life gets more joyful every day!”
This discrepancy with the description is stated directly. The poster is used as a visual reference: the slogan is known as a model of official rhetoric, and it is exactly this slogan that gets played with in memes about “life getting better.”
Summary
The hashtag is interesting as an example of how an advertising or official tone becomes material for irony. Claims about coordinating the campaign are unconfirmed, so the article presents them only as media reports.
The story shows how quickly users flip a set tone and turn it into a lasting meme.
