Yesterday Adam Horowitz landed on the repulsive Wall ad for an Israeli cell phone company–produced by McCann Erickson, a NY ad company– and cited Noam Sheizaf. Today the Washington Post got to the story. And great that they did– "Israel phone firm's West Bank wall gag fails to amuse," was the headline–and in the story Allyn Fisher-Ilan and Alastair Macdonald seem to land on the "hated symbol" aspect of the wall. They also quoted Sheizaf. But couldn't they have quoted some Palestinians?
Since the ad went out last week — as Palestinians marked the fifth anniversary of a World Court ruling that Israel's walls and fences in the West Bank were illegal — some Israelis have taken to blogs and social networking sites to voice dismay.
"Aside from being a great contender for the 'creepiest ads of all time', this one-minute ad says a lot about how mainstream Israel likes to see itself and the Palestinians," journalist Dimi Reider wrote in a blog which concluded most of his fellow Israelis did not understand Palestinians' rage at the barrier.
Post said that few Palestinians watch those TV stations. Yeah but Horowitz doesn't either, and he was disgusted by the thing…
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{ 15 comments }
Why is anyone demanding or even hoping that the plague rodents of israel will suddenly behave as though they were actual human beings? It's a preposterous idea. The plague rodents have to be destroyed, not humanized.
I fail to see how Nazi-like dehumanizing rhetoric serves any decent cause. You can support Palestinian rights and condemn Israeli crimes without wallowing in this sort of talk.
Any American progressive who is high-information in the I/P department would be sickened (as I was) by this McCann Erickson commercial.. It was surreal — as if Saturday Nite Live was doing a parody of armed occupation. The tone-deaf nature of this commerical is appalling: the wall is just a sports-oriented barrier, as if this were a badminton or tennis game. The soldiers — who violently hop out of their Jeep to kill whoever dropped this projectile on their hood — pick up the cellphone to call some IDF bimbos to cheer them on while they interact with the animals on the other side of the Wall. We urge everyone to send emails to McCann at McCann.com to tell them how unacceptable this "light ad" is to the world community. Disgraceful, shocking hasbara.
I agree with Donald's comment.
I can just imagine the outcry by Reform and Conservative if a cellphone company did this ad with US goy soldiers at Guantanamo. I can feel their fear. It is the same fear I feel now, knowing I could be behind a wall just like that (but in America) and I would be just as invisible to them … just another blue-eyed blond-haired Evil Christian Rightist.
Thanks for drawing attention to this in the first place — but to be clear, that's not a Washington Post report, it is a Reuters report on the WP Web site. Here is it on Reuters.com: http://www.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idUSTRE5...
Me too. (Also, I'm wondering: What's with the constant comparison to animals? Animals don't do that kind of stuff.)
Horowitz is disgusted by everything. You missed the humor, the dissent about the wall, inherent in the ad. That was an implied statement that there is a possibility of natural affinity and some trust, but that the wall is an unnatural obstacle to what otherwise be possible.
No there wasn't. When I saw the ad, I immediately knew how it failed in that respect ("failed" is maybe the wrong word…it's not like they tried.) There are no Palestinians. They are not heard and not seen. They're just not there. If the ad had shown people on both sides of the wall, participating in a football match, maybe they could have shown a different message. This way, the Palestinians are just blanked out.
Well, I got a different message. I think it is similar to the method of social change of disgust and rage, rather than of integration.
They start of with a presumption that the Wall is acceptable and that the Palestinians are fine with it. There was no implied statement – as Koshiro said, the Palestinians didn't exist. The wall stays and the Palestinian farmers are still unable to reach their farms. Imagine a similar commercial about the Berlin wall.
Agreed on both animals and humans. people can be angry at the injustice and suffering inflicted upon Palestinians. People can rage about israeli callousness. But callousness – and selective indifference to the suffering of groups – are human traits. And while it may be true that [most] cats would be indifferent to the suffering of [most] dogs, that alone does not make a good analogy. After all, cats also don't care for baseball [last I heard]. lastly, one good thing about rats is that they are reputed to leave sinking ships. Maybe we should all be more observant of rats and appreciate their survival skills. They are, after all, likely to outlast us, as would cockroaches.
Decent Jews all left the sinking ship of Israel a long time ago. What you have there is homogenized disease. Homogenized filth.
..oh…and I agree the comparison with animals is inappropriate. One searches in vain for a means of describing the utter repulsion these in quotes "people" instill.
The ad didn't integrate the Palestinians. They were non-existent.
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