Israelis (like everyone else, I imagine) find television ads very annoying. So much so that when you’re watching the news here, when they break for advertising, there’s a little timer in the top left corner of the screen, counting down the minutes and the seconds until the broadcast resumes. At the bottom of the screen, it often says, “two more ads, and we’re back,” or three. Or whatever.
But there are some ads that Israelis love (or at least like), and in today’s very brief post, we’re sharing two of them.
It used to be that going to an Israeli bank was an experience out of one of the lower rungs of Dante’s Inferno, but things have gotten much, much better. First of all, you can do almost everything on the app or the website. Second, when you do go in to the branch, the experience isn’t nearly as harrowing as it used to be. That’s in large measure because there’s competition between the banks, and when it comes to their money, Israelis value customer service.
So while there have always been ads for banks, most have been very unremarkable.
But during the war, the banks have led the way with all sorts of programs designed to help soldiers, reservists, couples of whom one or both were drafted, and so on. That’s the ad that you see above.
Bank Leumi (ads always with “blue” theme) is hardly the only bank doing that sort of thing, or the only bank in whose ads you can hear a decidedly patriotic theme. Once on this theme, we’re sharing one more, from Mizrahi Tefahot bank (“orange” is their color).
Note how the theme of “home” (bayit) repeats and is used in multiple ways.
Why share these bank ads today? Partly because what we try to do at IFTI is to give a sense of what Israelis are thinking about, feeling and sharing. Plus, in a new podcast series that we will launch this week, we’ll be sharing conversations with leading Israeli writers, journalists, thought-leaders and activists. In many of these conversations, you will hear people speak about the terrible political situation, worries about the economy, the Iranian threat, etc., but almost all speak about the “spirit of the people” that they believe is going to be key to Israel’s future.
These ads give a glimpse into that “spirit.” If Israelis didn’t resonate to these themes, it would make no sense for banks to put them at the center of their ads—on the contrary, it could backfire.
So in these ads, we get a feel for the commitment to home—and to each other— that animates much of Israel these days. More on the “spirit” they convey in some of our podcasts over the coming weeks.
Share this post