Nissan caves in to the Saudis
Nissan has caved in to the Saudis and will pull that Israeli ad with the Saudis beating up on a Nissan Tiida because it's fuel efficient. The Saudis had threatened Nissan with a region-wide boycott if the ad was not pulled (note - in the US the Tiida is called the Versa).The commercial, produced by the firm of Inbar-Merhav-Shaked, depicts a group of Gulf Arabs in traditional dress and surrounded by bodyguards attacking a Tiida compact. After hitting, cursing and throwing a shoe at the car, the protagonist is pulled away as a voice-over says, "When you are the most fuel efficient, it's clear that you won't be loved by the oil emirates."As you may recall, when I first posted this ad, I was able to find it with Russian subtitles, and I was able to find a small portion of it translated into English. For those who speak Hebrew, I now have the full ad translated into Hebrew (the actors are speaking Arabic), so once again, let's go to the videotape.
The Japan Times of August 9 quoted a Nissan spokesman in Japan as saying, "The commercial was produced by a local automobile distributor based on its own judgment, and Nissan Motor has nothing to do with the commercial." Daniella Raybenbach, spokesperson for Nissan Israel, confirmed that they had received a request to kill the ad.
If they didn't have totalitarian regimes, they could not threaten boycotts.
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 2:19 PM
4 Comments:
Nissan's capitulation to Arab blackmail shows that oil trumps questions of fairness. If the Arabs didn't have this leverage, the world would go tell them to go pound sand!
Norman, I disagree with you for once.
The Israeli importer's ad (not approved by manufacturer Nissan) is simply viewed as insulting to the Arabs.
While you and I might have plenty of justifiable reasons to insult Arabs, as long as Nissan anticipates doing business with them, this is a sure-fire way to lose their Arab customer base.
If we weren't a bunch of pussy-asses, they would not be able to threaten boycotts.
The arabs are able to blackmail because of their oil producing strength. This is the reason we should start producing our own.
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