Israel is quite the creative land and its commercials are perhaps surprisingly among the world’s cleverest and funniest. I bring this up because a new Israeli commercial has caused a ruckus in Saudi Arabia. The commercial for Nissan, the Japanese automotive giant, shows a group of Arab Sheiks leaving a hotel and about to board a gigantic limousine when they spot a fuel effecient Nissan and become despondent. This has apparently upset the Saudis who are now threatening a boycott of Nissan in the Persian Gulf. You can view the commercial, which is in Hebrew with English translation as well as the Saudi newscast that reported on the commercial on Haaretz. The commercial in Hebrew is below. It is a 30 second spot.

Here are some classic ads from Israel:

Israeli Paint Ad

Israel Tourism Ad

Ad for Israeli Cable Television Show “Danny in Hollywood”

How about this for a touch of gallows humor: an Israeli cable TV channel is using Iranian President Ahmadinejad –and the specter of a nuclear attack on Israel— as a promo for one of its shows. Tasteless? Yes. But hilarious.

It starts out with an actor playing the Iranian Prez (my one complaint: the actor’s too appealing; the real Ahmadinejad reminds me of a scruffy Teheran bus collector) ranting away, declaring” The uranium is in our hands. And after Monday it will be good-bye to Israel.”

Suddenly, his audience of robed Ayatollahs and Hojatollahs and chador-clad women begin shouting at him: “What are you talking about?” yells one robed and turbaned cleric. “It’s the last episode of Danny Hollywood on Monday night.”

The commercial for Yes TV then morphs into a full-on Busby Berkley musical, with Revolutionary Guards line dancing with their AK-47s, and thousands marching in the streets calling on Ahmadinejad to at least delay the annihilation of Israel until after the final show in the TV series.

I called up my friend Meir Javedanfar, a Middle Eastern analyst based in Tel Aviv, who has keeps an eye on all things Iranian. Was there any Iranian reaction about their esteemed Prez being used as a shill for Israeli TV? The ad has not gone un-noticed in Tehran. Meir read me a commentary from an Iranian news website, Asiran.com: “The Israelis make use of every opportunity to remind us that their country is under threat from Iran, despite the fact that they have over 200 nuclear weapons themselves.”

No humorous banter there. But, it’s easy to forget that Iranians, barraged by their own propaganda (and by the saber-rattling of Israeli Transport Minister Shaul Mofaz who says that an Israeli military strike against Iran is “unavoidable”) are just as paranoid about Israel’s intentions as Israelis are of Iran’s. If only Ahmadinejad were a harmless ticket collector on one of Teheran’s buses

VW Polo

This last commercial is hilarious and one of my all time favourites. This ad only works in Israel. They do poke fun at themselves.

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