The narrative tradition of a specifically Russian heroism is the central pictorial or scenographic motif in the series Pilots and Stewardesses. The series consists of seven pictures of children, with the boys dressed up as pilots and the girls dressed up as stewardesses, giving them the appearance of adults, depicted as heroes. The series comments on the influence of the mass media on the perception of the individual through advertisement, kitsch, beauty pageants and Hollywood movies. Children tend to mimic the constructed, 'perfect' world that is suggested by advertising. Bratkov shows the irony and absurdity of this act of mimicry.