Monday, August 19, 2013

The most explicit ad for a mainstream newspaper ever?


It's for the online edition of Ha’aretz. The script is in Hebrew, so I'll have to trust the description given in The Hollywood Reporter:
The spot, which surfaced online via YouTube Sunday and currently has more than 100,000 views, features a couple engaging in multiple sexual positions while the male complains about the act being mundane and outdated, indirectly referring to the publication's traditional reputation. 
"The design is impressive and comfortable, but user experience as a whole -- there's a slight sense of 'been there, done that,' " says the actor, with the female on top of him, followed by the slogan "Life is not as interesting as Ha'aretz's new website."


The source also claims that some Ha’aretz staff members have started a petition to demand the industrial be taken down, stating (in awkward translation): “the newspaper we are all happy of selected to advertise itself in among the most despicable sexist commercials seen in recent time, with an ad that promotes pornographic content in the vein of edgy interest younger viewers … We’re ashamed today to function in a newspaper that under untrue pretext of irony and elegance (with dubious high quality), showcases a quiet lady as a sex-related object.”

Can any Hebrew-speaking readers shed some more light on this controversy?

2 comments:

  1. Hi, i'm a devoted reader from Israel.
    this ad went online and created a huge buzz that quieted down very quickly.
    A few critics in Israel actually liked the irony and the role reversing in which the woman isn't the one bored from the act but the man does.
    there is another ad: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mzNH9FkuF4Q
    apparently a bored mom doesn't create the same buzz.

    Lora.

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