Israeli Advertising

RISHON LEZION, Israel — As I have noted in several posts in my Letters from Israel series, people here are frequently brash, politically incorrect, tactless, and traditional in regards to gender roles and stereotypes. This is especially true in advertising.

Cellcom, the country’s leading mobile-phone company, is running a new advertisement (shown above) that is generating some controversy. An army patrol is driving near the separation barrier when something hits their jeep. At first, the soldiers think they are being attacked, but it turns out that it was only an errant soccer ball that Palestinians on the other side of the barrier were using. The soldiers and the unseen Palestinians end up playing with each other. The ad’s voiceover at the end says, “What do we all want? Some fun, that’s all.”

Noam Sheizaf, a journalist for the Ma’ariv newspaper, is disgusted:

The fact that the Palestinians are invisible in this commercial, that the wall the soldiers are playing around was built on their lands – and that Palestinians are killed while protesting against it – the fact that in reality, if a Palestinian comes close to the fence to return a football or to wave a flag he is likely to get shot; the whole reality of the occupation, is something Israelis are refusing to see. Like the voice over at the end of the commercial says (“What do we all want? Some fun, that’s all”), we see ourselves as your usual happy-and-fun-loving-Mediterranean-nation, only in uniform.

Over at Jewlicious, a writer named C.K. says that others view the advertisement as a “harmless and humorous riff on an otherwise difficult issue – something Israelis are particularly well known for.” I lean towards this view. Sheizaf is taking a lighthearted attempt to breathe some levity into a messy situation much too seriously.

Still, from a marketing standpoint, Israeli commercials are very provocative to Western viewers, who tend to become outraged and offended by any insult to their sensibilities. Israelis, on the other hand, will usually just shrug their shoulders and laugh. To them, people should not be so serious all the time.

Here is a collection of famous — or infamous, depending on your point of view — commercials from Israel featuring the Vietnam War; the Titanic; a young boy with two blond, teenage girls; and feminine products that, for some reason, incorporate “69″ and “doggy-style” into the sales pitch.

Update: Here is a video reaction to the Cellcom advertisement. I cannot hear what the people are saying, so I would appreciate if any Hebrew-speakers could let me and my readers know.