Publicis Groupe Acquires Palestinian And Israeli Advertising Firms

This piece was first published in The Times of Israel.

Maurice Levy at the World Economic Forum in 2008 (photo credit: World Economic Forum / CC-BY-SA, via Wikimedia Commons)

With its purchase on June 18 of 20% of Ramallah-basedZoom Advertising, Publicis Groupe claims to be the first listed international holding group to enter the Palestinian market. Publicis’ French-Jewish chief executive Maurice Lévy sees the acquisition—especially with Publicis’ concurrent buying of a major Israeli communications group— as an investment toward peace in the Middle East.

The Palestinian advertising company, which has 23 clients and also has an office in Gaza, will now be called Publicis Zoom. Among its clients are the Bank of Palestine, Coca-Cola, Peugeot, the Palestinian Securities Exchange, and the new Palestinian-planned city of Rawabi.

The agreement, signed by Lévy at a ceremony in the West Bank, includes an option for the holding company to acquire a larger stake in Zoom in future.

Publicis announced the same day from its Paris headquarters that it had acquired BBR Group, the Israeli advertising and communications network. The transaction followed fifteen years of collaboration between Publicis and many of BBR’s affiliate agencies. BBR’s founder and chairman Yoram Baumann has been appointed the Publicis Groupe chairman for Israel.

Click here to read more.

© 2012 Renee Ghert-Zand. All rights reserved.

Refusing To Lose Their Heads

This post first appeared as “The Women of Jerusalem Find Their Heads” in The Sisterhood blog of the Forward.

"Lost" poster for Sandy Bar's head

When Sandy Bar lost her head, many Jerusalem residents decided that enough was enough. The actress and model, who is featured in Israeli fashion company Honigman’s ads for its new winter line, was suddenly reduced to a hand holding a purse. The public could see Bar’s face, framed by her long dark hair and adorned with large sunglasses, in the ads posted in Tel Aviv and other Israeli cities. But in Jerusalem, she was represented by a disembodied appendage.

This head chopping has prompted two kinds of responses among Jerusalemites. Some have taken to social media to circulate photos showing the difference between the two ads. One has even made up a “missing” poster for Bar’s head. “Lost: Sandy Bar’s head. Last seen at the entrance to Jerusalem. Finder should call the following phone number immediately,” it says.

Activists with the Yerushalmim civic non-profit organization, who have been tracking the disappearance of women’s images from Jerusalem’s public spaces for the past several months are taking a different tack. As part of its “Uncensored” campaign, they are inviting women to be photographed for posters that Yerushalmim members have begun hanging from balconies in the center of the city.

Click here to read more.

© 2011 Renee Ghert-Zand. All rights reserved.

Where Have All The Women Gone?

This piece first appeared as “Women Disappearing from Jerusalem Ads” on The Sisterhood blog of the Forward.

Rabbi Uri Ayalon

As I recently reported, Jerusalem City Councilmember Rachel Azaria lost her job and membership in the governing coalition for having gone to the High Court of Justice to oppose gender segregation in that city and to protect the equal rights of women.

An online petition has begun circulating to pressure Mayor Nir Barkat into giving Azaria back her city council responsibilities overseeing early childhood programs and local councils administration.

But the story is not just about what has happened to Azaria. “We are dealing with all kinds of exclusion of women in the public sphere in Jerusalem,” Conservative Rabbi Uri Ayalon told The Sisterhood. Ayalon, the founder and leader of Kehilat (Congregation) Yotzer Or, is on the board of Yerushalmim (Jerusalemites), a non-profit civic organization working to build an inclusive, pluralistic city. He and others in the organization have been tracking what they call the “disappearance of women from public life” over the past couple of years.

Click here to read more.

© 2011 Renee Ghert-Zand. All rights reserved,