A blank, black-bordered mourning announcement appears on the obituary page in the Monday edition of Haaretz newspaper, captioned, "This spot can be yours." It's an appeal against drunk driving.
A spokesman for the McCann Erickson advertising company, which designed the ad, told Globes, "The campaign began only today, and people are already talking about it. The message is clear: Driving plus drunkenness equals death."
Asked if the ad's placement on the obituary pages is not problematic and even tasteless, the company's Deputy Director Shai Goren said, "The campaign has no raison d'etre without the ad being exactly in that place. Every year, there are dozens of campaigns to prevent road accidents, but the public doesn't remember any of them. We wanted to get people out of their apathy."
Globes reporter Doron Avigad probed further: "If, Heaven forbid, there was a death announcement of one of your relatives next to the ad, would you still think it was a good idea?"
Goren: "We certainly, Heaven forbid, are not trying to offend those who have lost their loved ones. There is no connection, other than the location of the ad. The idea was to touch people, to cause them to understand that the empty space is reserved for them if they don't wake up right away and stop driving while drunk."
Contest for Best Ad
Coincidentally, Jerusalem ad agency Pirsumei Yisrael and a hareid-religious graphics company in Bnei Brak named Prog recently joined forces to sponsor a contest for the best ad for a campaign against road accidents. The results are to be announced tomorrow (Tuesday), at a gathering of religious publicists in Bnei Brak. The contest is being held in memory of Pirsumei Yisrael Chairman Yisrael Goldberg's son Aviyah Yehoshua Goldberg, who was killed last year in a car accident.
Among the entries:
* A seal reminiscent of a "kosher certification" calling for "kosher lemehadrin driving."
* A photo of a flower, captioned, "Don't pick [cut off] the flowers - but it is permitted to cut off the life of a child?"
* A black-and-white photo of a totaled car, with a sign strewn on the ground reading "Neherag Hadash" (newly-killed), very similar to the familiar sign "Nahag Hadash" (new driver).
* A colorful photo of a driver on a serene roadside, featuring a smiley and the caption, "Tinhag lechayech(a)," which can be understood as meaning either, "Keep smiling" or "Drive for your life." A sub-caption reads, "Drive with courtesy."