Sunstein is marketing his fantasies, and Chomsky was trying to excuse the unpopularity of communism.
The best guide to popularity is sales, or views, or escaping across borders - voting with their feet. The Bud Light fiasco illustrates the limits of marketing very well.
The pro Russians really have very limited material to use. And what they have is not exactly something they can sell to a western audience. They are stuck with the product they are trying to move. The Russians and their government and their media (have you seen their talk shows?) and their actions are a very hard sell. Not simpatico.
Their war goals, for instance, are incomprehensible or repugnant. Blowing up cathedrals and apartment buildings and wheat - go market that sort of optics. All they can sell is doubt.
The Ukrainians on their side are the plucky underdogs holding out against the hordes of the evil empire.