Wednesday 15 July 2009

The evil genius of Israeli advertising (continued)

My mother, who lives in London, is a very late - and very enthusiastic - adopter of the internet. Scarcely a day passes without her sending me by email the newest chain letter threatening all sorts of unpleasantness if I don't forward it to my nearest and dearest within 17 hours (I bin, without reading), latest health scares (I refer her to snopes.com without further comment) or grim amusement courtesy of youtube (I usually watch - a guilty pleasure).

Last night, she forwarded this to me. It is in Russian and I doubt that she noticed that it is an advert for the Israeli State Lottery.

It is so wrong on so many levels. It is also bloody funny. I think someone needs to give the fellows in McCann Erickson a new set of toys to play with...

7 comments:

Adam Ehad said...

Bloody hillarious!

Ami Kaufman said...

Excellent!

thebookmistress said...

That is very wrong on very many levels. Um, what do non-Russian speakers get out of it?

x said...

Not much. I assume the advert is only shown on Channel 9 - the Russian language station...

thebookmistress said...

The wife (?) is telling the guy off and the old ladies concur. (Wife: You are a bastard! OLs: He is surely a bastard! OLs nod sagely.) When they discover the money, the wife wants him back, and the old ladies discover that he is obviously a good looking gentleman.

Canadian lottery ads always seems to suggest that deserving people win. Here, the message seems to be "Are you a cheating SOB? Here is a lottery for you!"

x said...

On a superficial level, it is funny, if not PC; but I also think it says something about a certain chauvinism that runs through Israeli society. (I think: I live with a card carrying, bra-burning feminist, and I guess that some of her arguments stick occasionally).

You may find this link instructive:

http://www.momentmag.com/Exclusive/2009/2009-08/200908-Jewish_Word.html

Kampuchea Crossings said...

i love it, thanks! and also for the link. interesting look into your culture :-)