Cellcom has recently run a series of ads using an emotional track - staying together with old friends, keeping in touch, etc. I remember the one that went viral with a scene of a nursery school teacher who was retiring her and all her "graduates" from her long career came to honor her. It did not really have anything to do with cellphones, except I guess the idea that cellphones allow you to keep in touch with old friends.

In Cellcom's latest advertisement, they are running a similar ad based on a haredi backdrop. The scene is a few secular looking guys entering a haredi neighborhood asking for directions. they make it to the wedding of their friend who is now a baal teshuva. They are just in time, as the chosson is feeling bad and scans the crowd for them, but he has to move it along. As he is about to break the glass he spots them coming in and is suddenly happy, as his good friends, even though they are from his "previous life" have finally arrived.

Again, nothing to do specifically with a cellphone, just the ability to stay in touch.





And, as the pashkevil website points out, it is nice to see haredim being used in advertising for something nice and non-threatening, rather than the usual ads based on a style of intimidation and threats. I remember the television ad where haredim were seen protesting, in an ad for a cable station. Pashkevil points out an ad for car windshields that showed haredim throwing stones, or the ad for kosher ketchup showing haredim protesting the sale of chametz on Pesach. It is nice that the haredi community can finally also be portrayed in images and media in a positive fashion, just like everybody else.

It might be a bit early to say the haredi image has turned the corner, but perhaps this is the glimmer of a new direction.