Israel Matzav

Britain bans Israeli company's environment conscious ad

Britain has banned environmentally conscious advertising from an Israeli company that happens to be a longtime target of the BDS (boycott divest sanction) movement for maintaining a facility that employs Arabs in the Judean desert.

SodaStream Israel, a favorite target of the BDS Israel boycott movement, must remove a video commercial in Britain because it allegedly disparages other soda manufacturers.

SodaStream manufactures and distributes machines for home use to make carbonated drinks, eliminating the need to buy environmentally unfriendly plastic bottles.

It also operates a plant in Mishor Adumim, located between Jerusalem and the Dead Sea, an area claimed by the Palestinian Authority.

The factory is considered a political and moral sin by the BDS movement, which also promotes the boycott of Motorola, Naot footwear and Ahava products -- all because their plants, which employ Arabs, are located beyond the 1949 Temporary Armistice Lines drawn by the United Nations after the Arab world failed to annihilate the fledgling Jewish State.

Arutz Sheva asked SodaStream if an anti-Israel sentiment was behind the ban, but company officials have not responded.

Britain, which formerly has banned Ministry of Tourism ads for daring to show that Jerusalem is part of Israel, now has pulled the video commercial off the air, allegedly because it ridicules companies such as Coca-Cola and Pepsi.

The 30-second commercial shows soft drink bottles disappearing while people at home use their SodaStream machines.

“With SodaStream you can save 1,000 bottles per year,” says the commercial.

British authorities do not buy it. Despite the pro-environment message, they argue that unfairly disparages bottled drink manufacturers, although the United States, Australia and even boycott-strong Sweden have allowed the ad to go on the air.

Here's the commercial.

Let's go to the videotape.



Funny - I don't see any other soft drink company mentioned there. Hmmm.

Labels: Advertising Standards Authority, BDS, Britain

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 4:30 PM