Seen today in Jerusalem: 

Kudos to National Geographic for being true to its tradition of respect for other cultures.

Now available: an alternate edition of the Israeli edition of National Geographic magazine — targeted to the “Torah Observant community” (the term is inclusive of National-Religious, Sephardic, and haredi groups). Presumably, this NG version selects articles that avoid controversial discussions of evolution, and edits out those images of indigenous women that kept the boys in my fifth-grade class so interested in anthropology.

Thanks to Mr. Deadfish for the National Theographic title.

An advertisement in an Israeli newspaper that caters to the haredi market:

The ad reads: “One for All” (less literally, “One Size Fits All”). In this case, that one building developer is right for various “streams” of haredim. The implication is that this contractor recognizes the subtle differences between different groups of haredim, and knows how to meet each one’s particular needs.

If you don’t hang around the “Black Belt”, you likely saw a row of “identical” black hats under the yellow hard hat; it’s only haredim who are accustomed to instantly make the distinctions in style and proportion that signify group identity. The ad is clever. It’s tapping into what black hat-wearers (and their families) experience all the time: the assumption by non-haredim that haredim are a homogenous group (they’re not), that they are all the same (as if any two people ever are).

I’m not sure how relevant those subtle distinctions are to home construction, though.

The electric boxes on lower floors of apartment buildings are popular spots for guerrilla marketing of plumbing/electrical/handyman services.

From a bag containing Styrofoam cups:

The package reads, in part:

• “Foam cups insulate better than paper cups. When you consider the fact that consumers frequently use two paper cups when drinking hot beverages like coffee, the environmental advantages of using foam cups are even more evident.

• “Foam cups make up less than 1 percent, by weight and volume, of material generated and /or disposed of in the solid waste stream (U.S. EPA Characterization of  Solid Waste: 1997 Update).

• “Foam cups use less energy and are cleaner to produce than paper cups, according to articles in Consumer’s Research and Environmental Management by Dr. Martin D. Hocking, a chemistry professor at the University of Victoria in British Columbia.”

Something makes me think that the manufacturer of Styrofoam cups is feeling threatened. Personally, I don’t find these arguments very convincing. If anything, they make me wonder how much worse Styrofoam is for the environment than I thought. Do you suppose the copywriter was a Greenpeace saboteur?

This banner ad for Ford appeared on a CNET page today:

“Roll over to…”    o_o

Doubletake.

Oh. Silly me. I was thinking of the class action settlement.

Maybe this ad doesn’t represent the best choice of words for this product at this time.

[via Aisle One]

A great ad campaign concept. Of course, in Israel, everyone thinks they’re tough enough to park that way (a side effect of mandatory draft). So much so that it is actually formally sanctioned (pictures taken just up the street from my home):

While I do link to YouTube videos, or sites that embed them, I do not embed them directly in my blog. Why not? YouTube uses the end of each video to promote links other videos and advertisements, and does not give me any control over what is displayed there.

Same goes for Google Ads, by the way. I’d rather have no advertising at all than find myself advertising products or services I don’t believe in, don’t support, or am offended by.

I was on one site (the homepage of a Jewish organization), and was sad to see Google Ads for missionary messianic Christian cults showing up in the sidebar. Cults are savvy enough to choose keywords that will show up in searches for Jewish content. On another occasion, a religious venture capitalist was unwittingly posting links to pornographic videos (the links being embedded in the closing frame of a humorous YouTube video); I wonder how many people activated one of those links intending to navigate to the main page of the humorous video?

Surely the site owners in both of these cases were not aware of what was creeping through the cracks, but that isn’t good enough. Not for me.

Many people will say, “Who cares? It’s just advertising. You don’t even know what’s going on. Maybe the ads are fine.” Sorry; I do know. I do care. I believe I need to take responsibility.