Nostalgia Sunday – Strange… I’ve seen that face before
Filed under: design, General, History and Culture, Israeliness, Nostalgia Sunday, Politics, Pop Culture, tv
Went out to dine, en famille, at local Jerusalem eatery Pinati and noticed a change in their corporate image. Instead of a photoshopped photo of a rather excited-looking young man in a Turkish tarbush, what we now have is a cartoon — or is it a caricature? — of a man, still wearing the traditional fez — but looking remarkably like a contemporary US president.
It got me thinking about other brands we’ve had, throughout the years, that were inspired — a nice way of putting it — by other, perhaps more well-known images.
For example, take a look at Dan Haschan (“Thrifty Dan”), the elf that throughout the 1950s, 60s and 70s, helped Bank Hapoalim to encourage young people to save their agorot. He might as well be the eighth of Snow White’s dwarves. I mean, I get that the bag he’s holding is full of money but if he’s not one of them, then what’s the pickax for?
BTW: Dan was recently revived by Poalim, sans tools and his bag upgraded to a cool moneybox. There’s a good blog posting about the comeback (in Hebrew) on Samlil, a site devoted to Israeli branding and its sister site, Safta, a fantastic Flickr photostream of vintage Israeliana.
I’ve always loved the Ama lady, the face that launched a thousand loads of laundry. But look carefully and what you’ll see is Betty Boop, had she been born in pre-State Mandatory Palestine, served in the Palmach, married, moved into a workers’ residence and had to do all her washing by hand in the communal laundry room.
And who can forget MacDavid, the little kosher fast food chain that could? Certainly not McDonald’s, who sued the now defunct franchise (8 outlets in it’s heyday) for trademark infringement — and lost!
We have to forgive Walla!, Israel’s answer to Yahoo!, for the close resemblance because at the time every country had its own local Nanas, Yallas!, Kartoos or other copycat search engine-cum-web portal.
Clearly, there’s no way that Zakumi, the 2010 World Cup Mascot, could have known about Strauss-Elite’s new chocolate-inspired foursome, the Elite-Team. They probably just go to the same hairdresser.
However, there’s every chance that El-Al’s branding and marketing team had seen a relatively uknown little film called Walt Disney’s Peter Pan. Check out the winged flight attendant and tell me there’s no resemblance to our favorite jealous fairy.
But the biggest “tribute”* around these days has got to be animated cartoon Ahmed & Salim.
The elevator pitch: would-be Palestinian terrorists meet South Park. It’s been narrowcasting on YouTube for a while, earning its share of media coverage, bans and death threats along the way, and last week made its Israeli cable debut on comedy channel Bip.
An 11-year old told me it was really funny. I am unconvinced. But I suppose it beats what they’re showing kids on Palestinian TV. And Israel hasn’t ripped off Mickey Mouse, Maya the Bee and Bugs Bunny… yet.
*Another nice word
Nostalgia Sunday – Commercials Go Way Retro
Filed under: General, History and Culture, Israeliness, Life, Music, Nostalgia Sunday, Pop Culture, tv
We are awash in a flood of nostalgia that shows absolutely no sign on abating. As part of that trend, our commercials and TV shows are populated by the stars of yesteryear, trying today to earn some of the cash-o-la they couldn’t back in those modest days.
Take, for example, singer-songwriter Mati Caspi, seen lately endorsing Bituach Yashir direct insurance. Other unlikely singing insurance pitchmen include David Broza and Boaz Sharabi.
And here, just to remind you of why we loved them — Riki Gal and Mati Caspi in concert televised by Channel 2, then in its infancy. (Check out Riki’s single lace glove!).
Gal, by the way, is still a force to be reckoned with (she judged the first two seasons of Kohav Nolad, the Israeli version of Pop Idol), and will be performing in Jerusalem on Monday night this week at a benefit for Tsad Kadima, the Israeli organization dedicated to the rehabilitation of children, adolescents and young adults with cerebral palsy and other motor dysfunctions. (Tickets are still available. Contact anat@tsadkadima.org.il or call 02-6540062).
But back to nostalgia: even stars who no longer walk this earth are getting into the game. Israel Discount Bank revived a commercial from the 80s that starred the late great actor Shaike Ophir.
The ad’s revival highlights the fact Discount Bank was Israel’s first to offer telebanking-a revolutionary concept back then, especially in light of the poor quality of our phone service (“poor” being a polite substitute for the other four letter word I was considering using). Ophir actually offers the cop an asimon phone token so he can make the call. The commercial has proven so popular, there’s a follow-up where today’s comedians pay homage to Ophir:
Even Maccabi Health Services has climbed on the retro bandwagon, launching a radio campaign that employs the use of this catchy jingle for powdered orangeade Zip. The connection between HMO and beverage is tenuous — something about “We’re not in the Eighties anymore, so why should your health organization be?” — but it’s fun to revisit the era and that peculiar but sweet Israeli institution of the family whistle. Enjoy the original.
A lightbulb attraction
Filed under: Business, design, General, Israeliness, Pop Culture
Israeli advertising can be pretty weak on the creative front, which is surprising given the amazingly sharp minds that abound in all sorts of Sabras. Maybe it’s the pay?
But whoever came up with the latest Sylvania Israel lightbulb ad was truly struck by comic genius and a ‘lightbulb’ of a concept. I spotted it at a local lighting store, just behind the counter. It has a picture of the familiar-looking Oren Zarif, a ‘therapist of the subconscious’, with the quote, “Abuya, go over to Sylvania and the pain will pass.”
Zarif has fabulously cheesy advertising all over the Israeli press each week. Each ad features a picture of Zarif, always dressed in white with his straight black hair tucked behind his ears with and bolts of lightning in the background, followed by a series of pictures of Zarif with his ‘patients’, their thumbs up, proclaiming: “The surgery on my leg was cancelled!” — Zehava; “My chronic dizziness disappeared” — Aaron C.; “I was spared surgery on my gums” — Veronica B. And so on.
With eight clinics countrywide, Zarif is clearly doing something right, at least on the business front. He’s convinced that he inherited his powers from his Bukharan great-grandfather, enlightened Torah scholar Rabbi Pinhas Hacohen, writes Ruthie Blum in the Jerusalem Post.
All I know is, Sylvania definitely convinced me to buy their bulbs.
Getting Ben-Gurion high, and other TV ads
Filed under: General, Israeliness, Politics, Pop Culture
It’s here – the only redeeming aspect of the Knesset election campaign – the television ads!
Tonight beings the perennial ritual of the screening of the TV ads developed by the political parties running for the Knesset. Instead of airing them whenever they buy the air time, the three main Israeli channels – 1, 10 and 22, group the ads together in preset blocks of time. So tonight for instance, Channel 10 has been given the hour slot begining at 6 pm for those that just can’t wait, Channel 1 will air the aids at 10 pm and Channel 2 gets the late-night 11:15 pm slot.
The ads used to be screened in prime time, but there’s been a waning interest over the years among viewers, so they’ve been relegated to the early and late evening periods, and they’ll only be shown for two weeks instead of the traditional three. Still, the ads are always good TV and provide more laughs than any sitcom on the air.
Following the rich get richer mode of thinking, the amount of time each of the 34 parties receives for commercials is based on how many MKs each party has in the current Knesset, so Kadima will dominate the broadcasts and new parties will barely be seen, according to The Jerusalem Post.
Kadima’s ads are focusing on tearing down Likud leader Binyamin Netanyahu, who is leading in the polls. One ad depicts a polygraph machine as Netanyahu vowed to oppose the disengagement from the Gaza Strip, while a picture shows him voting in favor of the plan.
The Likud will go after Kadima leader Tzipi Livni, portraying her as indecisive and zigzagging – by supporting the Second Lebanon War but calling it unwinnable, and calling to topple Hamas while giving them money. The Likud slogan – “it’s out of her league” is purposely read by a woman so as not to look chauvinist, says the report.
The religious Shas party is adopting the tactics of President Barack Obama, by featuring the “Yes, we can” slogan, while the Left-wing Meretz-Hatnua Hahadasha ads have candidate Nitzan Horovitz drinking from a toilet to highlight the problem of water pollution.
The less popular the party, the more outrageous the ad, it turns out. The Power to the Handicapped Party will feature disabled people having sex to prove that they are abled, while the Green Leaf Party which favors legalizing marijuana will feature chairman Gil Kopatch smoking a joint on the grave of Israel’s first prime minister David Ben-Gurion.
Everyone’s happy now – the ad agencies have their creative juices flowing, the TV viewers have something to watch and talk about the next day, and the politicians are seeing themselves as God-like. Now, if all this only helped the voter decide who to vote for…
IFCJ’s TV ad campaign
The Zionist community might be a little queasy about its relationship with The International Fellowship of Christians and Jews. After all, can supporters of Jerry Falwell and the Gush Katif crowd really share a bed comfortably? But the fact is, Chicago and Jerusalem native Rabbi Yechiel Eckstein’s organization has done amazing work when it comes to fostering support for Israel.
Last month, Eckstein was interviewed on the decidedly Jewish-flavored Shalom TV, where he defended his work with characteristic eloquence, speaking about how terror groups’ publicity campaigns in South America, for example, must be offset by his own.
Eckstein is no stranger to TV. His very own Journey To Zion program, which has been airing for about a year and a half on Christian television networks in the US, provides a pulpit for Eckstein’s introductory Jewish teachings.
And for the past several months, the IFCJ has been running TV ads on Fox News – something which no other pro-Israel informational organization has had the nerve or means to do. The spots (example here) may be sensationalistic, and they may stray from the latest trends of pushing an image of Israel as a nation of high-tech and supermodels, but they’re poignant, and they have yielded results.
This past March, back in the early days of the ad campaign, the IFCJ reported having raised enough funds to make a difference:
IFCJ funded the renovation of 32 public bomb shelters in Sderot at a cost of $1.5 million. In addition, the organization has recently pledged to upgrade 400 bomb shelters in privately-owned residences in Ashkelon at an expected cost of $2 million.
Even Haaretz is taking note, running a story last week on the campaign under the headline “Jewish charity brings U.S. viewers Israel’s version of the war in Gaza.”
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