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There is a long history of ‘Visit Israel’ ads that seem to miss the mark. Various organizations want the world to visit our tiny country, but apparently good intentions are just not enough, and these often result in offensive adverts. The latest spot, by the Canadian Council for Israel and Jewish Advocacy (CIJA), should get some kind of an award for bad taste:

Size Doesn’t Matter -- CIJA -- 2010

Following are a few more ‘Visit Israel’ ads you might find offensive. One thing I find common to all these ads is that they all probably started as funny jokes during a brainstorming session, but there were probably no adults in the room to say “Ha, ha… very funny, now let’s think harder”. Some of these were specifically aimed at quote-unquote going viral, hoping for a lot of FW: FW: FW: THIS IS FUNNY emails.

Un-holy Israel -- Keta Keta -- 2007

Indeed -- Israel at Heart -- 2005

The Israeli branch of WIZO, the Women’s International Zionist Organization established in 1920, continues its annual tradition of announcing the most chauvinistic Israeli advertisements created during the past year. The worst ad will be announced during International Women’s Day, but the top ten finalists were revealed last week. Following are the most sexist TV spots of 2009 and while they are in Hebrew, sexism transcends language barriers:

Tempo’s Goldstar beer -- McCann-Erickson Israel

Israel Post -- Glickman-Nettler-Samsonov

Trima’s Postinor morning-after pill -- Armoni BATES

Procter & Gamble’s Fairy liquid -- Adler, Chomsky & Warshavsky

New Hamashbir Lazarchan -- McCann-Erickson Israel

24 frames per seconds, sometimes more, and every one of those frames is absorbed by our bodies. If you agree with my premise, you might find the following TV ad as lame as I found it to be. It advertises a chicken and corn cutlet from the Israeli ‘Mama Of’ brand. Apparently the proper way to hold two cobs of corn is very close to your chest, pointing outwards, in a vegan twist on Madonna’s infamous cone brassiere.

My very first thoughts after seeing this ad were:
- What the hell is this?
- Would make a great post for my blog
- Nah… probably my oversexed mind
…but today my trusted female source on feminism and gender issues expressed the same disgust with this ad, honing in on the exact same disturbing posture without us discussing it in the past. This assured me I was not imagining: Someone from the ad agency must have thought instilling a nippely bosom in our minds would somehow make us buy their product.

Here’s the complete ad with Gimel Yafit and her corny daughter-in-law:

Update: You can read this post in Hebrew here.

Israeli cable TV provider HOT has recently launched an ad campaign about its video on demand service. There are a dozen or so TV ads, but only one of them is the real McCoy: a short, smart and funny commercial that flatters the viewer’s intelligence while genuinely relating to the advertised product. Check it out:

The Hebrew caption reads: Watched an entire season of CSI

Since I usually only blog about offensive ads, I thought I would change the bitch-to-praise ratio by pointing to this rare catch. If you need your dosage of venom, go and check out one of the related posts linked below.