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Israel tourism stripped to the bare essentials

Posted in Advertising, Marketing, Creative September 18th, 2007 by gabay

Here’s a joke: Two hot-blooded men are sunbathing on a beach in Israel.  A stunning woman dressed in an incy-wincy-teeny-weeny bikini saunters by.  The first man turns to his friend and says: “Holy G-d.”  The second one responds: “Holy Moses”.  An unseen voice says: “No wonder they call it the Holy Land!”

Funny or not, the gag is being seriously debated around the world. The line is taken from the latest viral ad, commissioned by the State of Israel to promote tourism. In another similar web-based commercial, teenage boys playing football on the beach lose concentration on the game as a beauty pageant of Israeli bombshells stroll by. The tagline at the end of the commercial reads: “Israel - No wonder we didn’t make it to the World Cup.”

Part of the Israeli government sponsored campaign also includes a photo-shoot of yet more Israeli girls in bikinis, fresh out of stripping machines guns in National Service, to be published in the notorious ‘Lad’s Mag’ - Maxim. An Israeli government spokesman explained that the campaign is meant to show that there is much more to Israel than just conflict and tension.

Take me I’m yours

Like all great viral campaigns, this one is piquantly controversial; getting people talking in offices, mosques, synagogues and churches alike. In Israel, women’s rights groups are complaining that, particularly in the case of the Maxim shoot, women are being shown in unnecessarily provocative poses next to what is essential a symbol of equality and philosophically sound ethics - the Star of David. One such activist told a news crew that the campaign seemed to say: “come to Israel and you can have free sex with me.”

A time to reflect on the times

Currently Jews around the world are undergoing a solemn period of reflection - The Ten Days of Repentance - leading towards Yom Kippur - The Day of Atonement. On consideration, perhaps the new campaign reflects that irrespective or belief, the universal sex-drive motivates all. It also mirrors the current global PC trend that vehemently goes against anything which could suggest any resemblance of religious fundamentalism.

The trouble with taking the sex approach is that it portrays Israel as just another Ibiza-like resort - totally failing to take into account its particular illustrious heritage.

I’m great - everyone else is wrong

It certainly has been a year of anti-fundamentalism fundamentalist activity.  Best selling books such as, ‘G-d is not Great’ remind people with almost a religious voracity of the evil that mankind does in the name of religion - totally failing to address the sincerity of the original text which such people exploit to misguide people in the first place.

Equally, a global army of dissidents has risen to question the authenticity and motives of advertised brand-name promises. Relatively recent cases include:

The stumble - rather than fall of institutions like Northern Rock which failed to plan for the demands of today’s trans-global markets, TV channels found to be fraudulent with charity phone-ins and even the questions surrounding the innocence of the McCanns. 

The consumer has turned from passive recipient of information to strident prosecutor of brands in every aspect of life and media.

Evidently the emerging new wise-men of marketing no longer take their lead from age-old principles preached by ‘prophets’ of marketing like Ogilvy, Peters or Kotler. Instead they prefer to base campaigns on an itinerant group of 5th century Greeks called Sophists who believed in winning moral and political arguments without much regard for the truth of what is even being argued about in the first place.

…Holy cow…

Jonathan Gabay
www.brandforensics.co.uk