Ad industry wants to confront ultra-orthodox extremists in Israel - by creating an image of a man, made up from images of women

In Israel, there is a unique problem with using women on billboards and other OOH advertising.

For more than a decade, more than 3000 women in Jerusalem have seen their images defaced on public billboards – their faces scratched out, spray painted, covered with graffiti, and in extreme cases even burned down.

This vandalism is typically carried out by ultra-orthodox extremists who believe women shouldn’t be seen in public.

It doesn’t matter who the women are – politicians, nurses, models and actors have all seen themselves erased from the city streets.

With little-to-no action taken by the authorities, women’s faces have disappeared from billboards and posters across the city. But now, advertising professionals in Israel and overseas have teamed up to fight back.

OOH companies, agencies and advertisers that did not fall in line with these “standards” have frequently fallen victim to vandalism and eventually chose to avoid using female models and influencers in their ads given the financial costs of these attacks. As a result, women’s faces have disappeared from billboards and posters across the city and a girl growing up in Jerusalem would not see an image of a woman running for city council or a successful female athlete promoting a sports brand in the public sphere.

After more than a decade of complacency with the situation, advertising professionals in Israel refuse to keep silent as the war on women in Jerusalem is not very different than the war on women (and men) in other geographies – the enforcement of strict codes around dress and behavior in Iran as another harrowing example.

Together with JCDecaux (which as you know is the largest outdoor advertising company in the world), the Israel Women’s Network, Cloudfactory, Adler Chomski, and Blue Oyster Media have launched a citywide campaign, featuring a mosaic image of male international actor (and star of Netflix hit Fauda), Tsahi Halevi, made out of the portraits of thousands of women who were defaced over the years.

“We conceived Hidden Portraits as a Trojan horse”, Julio Alvarez, Creative Director at Cloudfactory, explains. “At a first glance, it seems like just another portrait of Tsahi Halevi. But taking a closer look, the billboard reveals its true nature: a portrait that consists of hundreds of portraits – those of the women who’ve been defaced from advertising billboards in Jerusalem over the past decade by ultra-orthodox extremists.”

The poster calls passersby to “Take a closer look” followed by “There are places in Israel this is the only way to present women in the public sphere”. Once activated, a QR code on the poster will launch a mini-site with further information about the project and those using Google Maps will see a female version of the poster on their mobile instead of the real-life street “male” poster – the female version actually features Lucy Ahrish, Tsahi’s wife and a journalist/news anchor who’s image was erased several times in recent years.

The campaign calls on national and local governments as well as law enforcement bodies to do more in the fight against these terror acts.

Hadas Danieli Yellin, Executive Director of the IWN (Israel Women Network), comments: “Vandalizing signs with female figures is only part of the phenomenon of the exclusion of women from the public sphere, which poses a real threat to the achievements in the field of women’s rights and gender equality in Israel. We have reached an absurd situation in which advertising companies are forced to refrain from publishing photos of women. In the rare cases that those vandals were caught by the police they were released almost immediately with no charges, which is a travesty.
Addressing the phenomenon will come only by placing the issue at the top of the priorities of the Israel Police and government. We will continue to fight against the exclusion of women from the public sphere and we will not be ignored.”

Shir Zakai, CEO of JCDecaux Israel: “Already in 2020, JCDecaux Global launched a program for gender equality and as part of its commitment, set itself the goal of reaching the representation of at least 40% women in senior management by 2027. Social responsibility and equality are part of the DNA of JCDecaux worldwide. Diversity and inclusion are an important part of who we are and how we act. I am proud to be part of a society that fights for equality and an organization where women are in leadership positions.”

The final words are for César García, Creative Director at Cloudfactory: “We want to confront extremists with the fact that they wouldn’t dare deface a male portrait – but how will they behave if that portrait consists of hundreds of portraits of women? Let’s see! By confronting them with this situation we could expose the absurdity of their methods.’

Cloudfactory and Blue Oyster Media are both part of by The Network, an international independent agency network founded by the late Per Pedersen. García continues: ‘Hidden Portraits is a best-in-class by The Network project, a true collaboration between like-minded colleagues who believe advertising has a responsibility towards society. by The Network was founded by Per Pedersen, who sadly passed away early this year. We at Cloudfactory were responsible for the creative and concepting part, very much in line with the work we’ve been making lately and with our creative activism philosophy. This project has a deeply emotional side to it, since it’s the last project Per oversaw, and one he held dearly.”

Credits:
Clients – IWN (Israel Women’s Network) and JCDecaux Israel
Creative – Cloudfactory Amsterdam
Media – Blue Oyster Isreal
Media Partner – JCDecaux Isreal
Production – Adler Chomski Tel Aviv
Tech – Bria Artificial Intelligence Ltd.
Agency Network – by The Network