Freebies

July 16, 2008 - 1:53 PM by Jessica

In the 14 years I’ve lived in Israel, which isn’t a very long time compared to some, I’m consistently amazed by the increasing sophistication of product placement in this country. Granted, there are a few other things to be impressed by, whether it’s the Silicon Wadi, medical advances or perhaps other items of a higher moral standard.

But when you’re coming from a place that practically created product placement — whether it was the plastic Coke cups from which we slurped our 7-11 Slurpees or the Tropicana orange juice t-shirts that were available through a mail-rebate offer — to go live somewhere that doesn’t know from touting its products, well, it’s just missing some flavor.

So you can imagine the pleasure and pride I felt at two recent events where different companies used the opportunity to tout their products in a fairly creative, somewhat useful manner. The first was at the opening event of the Jerusalem Film Festival, where each attendee received a hot cup from Nescafe, including packets of the all-important Nes coffee packets inside. I’m not a particular fan of drinking ‘Nes,’ and would have much preferred another of the light fleece blankets that Pelephone handed out last year, but I could appreciate the effort.

The next handout was a few nights later, at another film festival event, one of the free outdoor movies at Jerusalem’s old train station. After getting our free tickets, my friend noticed the Orange mobile phone posters telling customer to punch in the word ‘Enjoy’ and send it to 999 for a treat from the company. With great excitement and anticipation, I approached the stand and was handed my gift in an Orange bag. Could it be a blanket? But no. It was a sweet, slightly edgy gray teddy bear. Perhaps useful as a cushion while watching The Band’s Visit from the hard, stadium-style seats and certainly a welcome collection to my stepdaughter’s stuffed animal collection. Yet nothing like the white Bezeq-branded cushions we were given years back at a Shlomo Artzi concert in Caesarea.

Still. Effort counts. And I’m getting a lot of use out of my complimentary Khalifa pen; received when I purchased my new pair of Teva Naots. So that’s something.

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