diumenge, 30 de gener del 2011

Advertising in the name of God

"This is Israel's –if not the world's– first advertising school exclusively serving the ultra-Orthodox Jewish community. Launched with 35 students in May 2010, the academy is grooming a generation of advertising execs specifically targeting Haredi consumers.

Founded by the mainstream advertising school Habetzefer, which is based in Telaviv, the academy is a bricks-and-mortar response to the increasing clout of Israel's Haredi Jews. Living throughout the country (and everywhere from Brooklyn to Belgium), this sector is separated from secular society by history, faith and custom. It takes its name from the Hebrew word from trembling – Haredim are literally trembling before God.

[...] The Academy, which has 15 mostly secular lecturers, must guide students through the vast restrictions dictating Haredi advertising. Some are obvious: no sex, nudity or exposed skin. But others can be more unwieldy: Haredi rabbis have opposed the use of digital screens advertising on the of buses and beauticians were ordered to stop promoting their services via images of eyes or eyesbrows.
Most crucially, Haredi consumers are forbidden from text messaging, watching television and using the internet. Regarding the rabbinical committees issuing these edicts, they tipically do so unchallenged and with little explanation.

David Kaufman. Monocle. Admen of God.