Layalina Productions, Inc. | The Layalina Review: "Cellcom is the Only One who 'Wants to Have Fun:' Israel's PR Problem

The Layalina Review

VOL. V NO. 16, July 17-July 30, 2009

Cellcom is the Only One who “Wants to Have Fun”; Israel’s PR Problem

Israeli cell phone giant, Cellcom, is under a wash of criticism in the wake of their controversial television ad released earlier this month, reports the BBC. The commercial, which features Israeli forces kicking a soccer ball back and forth with unseen Palestinians across the West Bank barrier wall, has sparked protest and intense disapproval from both sides of the issue.

Both pro-Israeli and pro-Palestinian commentators have lambasted the Cellcom ad, saying it “makes light of the separation barrier,” according to Robert Mackey of The Lede, a New York Times news blog. Several Facebook groups have also emerged protesting the ad.

Mackey quotes Israeli blogger Noam Sheizaf, as saying that the ad “breaks some records in bad taste, even by Israeli standards.” The article goes on to describe other bloggers who criticize the ad for keeping the Palestinians “invisible.”

A group of Palestinians have even created a response video, reports BBC, in which the soccer ball kicked by Palestinians is answered by canisters of tear gas. The video, posted online, uses the same soundtrack as the Cellcom commercial.

Lawmakers in Israel have now demanded the Cellcom ad be taken off the air, according to Reuters. In addition, Israeli member of parliament Ahmed Tibi, said “the advertisement presents the barrier as though it were just a garden fence in Tel Aviv…[but it] separates families and prevents children from reaching schools and clinics.”

“In Cellcom’s eyes… even the most tragic and traumatic experiences of an entire people can be harnessed to the selling of mobile phone services,” writes Seth Freedman in an opinion piece for The Guardian. “If Cellcom’s reaction is anything to go by…there is [a] long way to go before empathy is applied to those forever trapped behind the concrete slabs of the separation barrier.”

At least one blogger interpreted the ad differently. Yariv Oppenheimer of the Jerusalem Post called it a “brave display of reconciliation,” although he admits it is “hardly a ‘perfect’ commercial.”

Oppenheimer praises the ad for attempting to depict something other than “models acting like models,” but instead addressing a sensitive issue on the forefront of the Israeli conscience. He says the ad should be viewed not as a portrayal of the situation that currently exists, but as “a positive model for emulation.”

The originality of the ad has also been called into question by two independent filmmakers, Itamar Rose and Yossi Atia, reports Offri Ilani at Haaretz. The filmmakers say Cellcom took the idea for the commercial from a short film they produced three years ago, which was screened at film festivals and is available on YouTube.

Rose and Atia’s short has a different ending from the Cellcom commercial—the Palestinians do not return the ball tossed over the barrier by the Israelis. The filmmakers are now taking legal action against Cellcom, Ilani states.

Israel’s PR Problem

Concerns have been growing for some time over perceptions of Israel’s image, especially in Europe, reports Gerry Moriarty for the Irish Times. He claims that Israelis are “very conscious” of their country’s antagonistic reputation in much of Europe, and quotes a foreign affairs ministry official as saying, “We have completely lost the battle in the media…We need to get to the hearts and ears of people in Europe.”

The Israeli foreign ministry has also established a “special undercover team” of mainly young people to spread “positive news about Israel” across the internet, reports The National. The team forms partly in response to the dissemination of anti-Israeli information following their attacks on Gaza last winter.

Several bloggers have brought attention to the growing trend among writers outside the country to be critical of Israel.

One blogger, Jane Stillwater, was banned from a popular political blog site, DailyKos, on charges of anti-Semitism, says Philip Weis of Mondoweiss. Stillwater wrote a satirical piece on DailyKos suggesting that American Jews whose homes had been foreclosed on could find an easy housing solution through illegal settlements in Israel.

Helena Cobban of Just World News writes about an essay by poet Alice Walker, in which Walker describes the “courage” of the number of Jews who chose to “speak out against Israeli brutality.”

Cobban also praises a different blogger at DailyKos, who “is one of the new generation of Jewish-American bloggers” willing to criticize Israel and formulate “fair and sustainable ways to end Israel’s long-running oppression of the Palestinian people.”

Political scientist Marc Lynch, on his blog at Foreign Policy, also brought attention to Israeli public relations. Lynch advises readers to use caution when reading the series of “similar pieces” that have recently emerged which seem “geared towards creating the impression that Obama’s strong position on Israeli settlements [has] backfired,” and spin a “narrative that Obama is unfairly hostile to Israel.”

Lynch claims that these views, most notably those highlighted in an editorial for the Washington Post by former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, are “advice from those who aren’t worried [Obama will] fail, they want him to fail.”

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