A wall, a ball and the racist commerical
The problem with most progressive anti-racism activists (besides lacking any sense of humour or proportion) is their earnest belief – there is always a racist hiding under the bed, or in the case of the this Israeli cell phone commercial – by the wall. Ha’aretz:
A Facebook group is trying to get Israel’s leading cell phone operator, Cellcom, to pull a new TV commercial showing Israeli soldiers near the West Bank separation fence, arguing that the advert is “racist.”The commercial, produced by the Israeli branch of international advertising powerhouse McCann Erickson, shows IDF soldiers on patrol along the separation fence who stop their jeep when it is hit by a soccer ball from the Palestinian side of the fence. The ball soon bounces back to the Israeli side, at which point the soldiers decide to hold an impromptu game with the Palestinians, cheered on by female soldiers. The voiceover accompanying the advert says: “After all, what are we all after? Just a little fun.”
So let’s roll to the ad before You Tube pulls it.:
The Facebook group, called “I too got nauseous watching the new Cellcom ad,” severely criticized McCann Eriksson’s use of the separation fence in its advert. “We could go into the media messages spouting racism any which way, but if you have come here than you too think they’re uncalled for,” reads the introduction to the Facebook group. “The McCann Erickson copywriter displayed an unbelievable propensity for bad taste.”
The group also centered on what they feel is offensive in the new commercial, pointing out the fact that the supposedly “good” soldiers fear the possibility that the “monster living on the other side of the wall could steal the ball – but when the ball returns to Israeli hands, we discover that that monster isn’t fierce at all, and actually feels like playing with the soldiers – oh joy!”
Oy, vey. What a grim world these gremlins inhabit, and I am perfectly happy to let them live out their dark and twisted little lives without interference; except, they never seem satisfied until they have remade the world in their image.
