Avivit Agam Dali

Hebrew-language advertisements in the Israeli press stringently avoided any reference to intimacy or sex until the 1960s. Before the 1960s, the ideal depicted in advertising showed an individual or a group, with hardly any place for representations of couples of any type. During the 1960s, however, a huge change became discernible in advertisers’ attitudes to representations of romanticism and sexuality. Some of the products offered through the ads were associated with romance and functioned as aids to assist the progress of a romantic relationship. The rise of members of the “flower children” generation, who grew up to work in the advertising industry in Israel, contributed greatly to relatively crude representations of Israeli sexuality that burs through the ads. Increasingly, images of heterosexual relationships became legitimate sales promoters. Along with images of couples, semi-pornographic pictures were also used, focusing on women’s bodies and objectifying them.

Otte Wallish was one of the foremost graphic designers during Israel's firsts dacades.
Wallish submitted his designs to many of the large corporations in Israel, such as Tnuva (dairy cooperative), Osem (foods), Egged (transportation cooperative), Oniya (stationery) and others.
The current study is an attempt to focus on works by Wallish for the Jewish National Fund (KKL) before 1948.
In the posters we can see images of Zionists ideals such as blossoming the desert and jewish settlements in the land of Israel. The study examined how and why Wallish promoted Zionists values.
In his Iconography we can see the landscapes of the Galilee that  represent Jewish settlements. Images of conquering the Galilee were represented by recurring images of Jewish farmers alone or in groups. Liberation became a visual image of the working man/men with the view of the Galilee.

מחקר זה מבקש לבדוק אֵילו ייצוגים מחיי היום־יום הופיעו בפרסומות מן העיתונות העברית בעשור השני ובעשור השלישי להקמת מדינת ישראל. המחקר הוא מחקר סמיוטי המתחקה אחר אוצר הדימויים שהופיעו בעשורים אלו ב־244 פרסומות שנאספו לצורך מחקר זה. נמצא כי פרסומות התקופה מתמקדות בטובת הפרט אך מעלות על נס גם ערכים קולקטיביים וגם את ערכי "כור ההיתוך", לדוגמה: לצד ייצוגים של נופש או מסיבות מוצג אידיאל לימוד השפה העברית. ממצא נוסף הוא, שנשים הוצגו לא רק כעקרות בית אלא גם כנשים עובדות: שוטרות, דיילות, זבניות, כתבניות ועוד. המחקר מוכיח שביטויים של תרבות פנאי בפרסומות כבר הופיעו בשנות השישים, ושאת אידיאל "היהודי החדש" ו"היהודייה החדשה" החליפו ייצוגי פנאי וחיי יום־יום. במקום להציג אידיאל חקלאי כבעבר, הפרסומות החלו להתמקד באספקטים נעימים ויפים של המציאות היום־יומית והתעלמו מן הקשיים והרוע שבמציאות. בעיות ביטחון או קשיי הקיום הוצגו בפרסומות כאידיליה: הפרסומות הציגו עולם מושלם שבו לכל בעיה יש פתרון במוצרים שונים.

Graffiti and protest posters in Israel during the "Summer of Protest, 
      2011".
During the Summer of 2011, a tent city arose on Rothschild Boulevard, one of Tel Aviv's historic main streets. What characterized this "city" was the reflection of the mass protest expressed by the "squatters." Through visits to the site and media coverage of events, viewers were exposed to the graffiti and street posters reflecting the mass protest, expressing opposition to the economic and political situation and the politics of life in Israel. The street art reflected the worldview of people protesting against the high cost of living in Israel, the lack of possibility of ever purchasing an apartment, the establishment's insensitivity and alienation, and other issues of the Israeli reality. The street art was a popular creation, a medium accessible to huge crowds. Those who created the art expressed themselves through works executed on walls, buildings and posters. Usually the texts were humorous or expressed protest.  The writing and painting presented the non-standard, informal, subversive side of an entire urban culture. Street art is a transient media, a kind of spontaneous graphics by "the man in the street" expressing a personal stance about the situation. Because the graffiti and underground posters are associated with a given time and place, they may be irrelevant to those who are not local residents, because locals use language and jargon familiar mainly to those who live in the artist's nearby environment. The graffiti and street posters therefore draw their vitality and significance from the group and the context which they address, since their explication is based on a folkloristic cultural context constituting an essential part of them. The current article describes various aspects reflected in the graffiti and street posters of Israel's "Summer of Protest," 2011.

The present article is a sociocultural examination of the visual images in advertisements in the Israeli press from 1967 through 2008.
The article shows that Major cities of the world are represented in Israeli advertisements as places of entertainment and leisure time. The image of foreign lands appears in the Israeli consciousness as a contrast and utter opposite to the density and crowdedness of Israeli life. advertising images function as the site in which the illusion of “abroad” seems to become “realized” and becomes “accessible” to every consumer. It is the refuge of the consumer who escapes to his land of dreams located among the pages of the advertisement. Distancing from the Israeli locale in advertising can function as a metaphor for Israel’s place in the hearts and minds of those to whom Israeli advertisements are directed.
Short bio
My doctoral dissertation (2008) on “Cultural aspects of Israeli advertising: Representations of the open landscape," was written at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem’s Department of communication.
I am a lecturer at the Max Stern Yezreel Valley College and Head of Communication Department at the Nazareth Academic Institute.

My research engaged in an analysis of the cultural and anthropological aspects of Israeli advertisements with a focus on imagery of landscape and Nature and their significance. The resulting semiotic study focused on visual language.

The present article is a sociocultural examination of the visual images in advertisements in the Israeli press from 1967 through 2004.
The changing meanings of the desert landscape perceived by the advertiser’s eye functions as a social barometer sensing cultural and sociological changes, translating them into a visual language which functions as a sales promotion tool.
The study of advertisements over the past decades shows a turning point in the attitude of Israeli advertisers to the desert. In the iconography of advertising up to the early 1970s, the desert represents 'the world beyond,' past the borders and into what is beyond the border, the forbidden and the permissible, and as backdrop for the figure of the Israeli soldier, which is almost the only figure appearing in the ads against the desert background until 1973 (the desert image functioned as a site of battles).
After the year 2000, the desert is represented usually as an exotic location, the result of a hedonistic society living under the threat of war, but which still prefers to see advertising as an escapist location.

בעשור הראשון לקום המדינה ניתן ביטוי לרעיונות ציוניים כמו כיבוש השממה וההתיישבות היהודית בישראל במדיה השונים. אלו היו ערכים מרכזיים בשיח הציבורי באותה תקופה, שעוצבו בהשראת התנועה הציונית ופעילותה.
מחקר זה בקש לבדוק כיצד התייחסה הפרסומת הישראלית לרעיון כיבוש השממה והפכה אותו מנוע להגברת מכירות. המחקר נסה למצוא כיצד ומדוע נוצר החיבור בין פרסום של מוצר מסחרי לבין אג'נדה פוליטית-חברתית שקידמה, במקור, את ערכי הציונות, וכיצד, הפכה הפרסומת לכלי לביטוי ערכי כיבוש השממה בעשור הראשון לקיומה של מדינת ישראל. כמקרה בוחן נבחנו דימויים חזותיים שאוירו על גבי פרסומות שנוצרו על ידי אוטה וליש, מבכירי הגרפיקאים של אותם ימים. וליש הגה ועיצב פרסומות למרבית החברות הגדולות במשק העברי של אותם ימים כמו "תנובה", “אסם", "אגד", "אניה", "אשד גת", "רימון" וכדומה. וליש ייצג, מבחינות רבות, את "רוח הזמן" באמצעות שימוש במאגר דימויים חזותיים מוכרים ופופולאריים.
בניתוח סמיוטי של פרסומות שנוצרו בין השנים  1948-1960נמצא כי דימויי כיבוש השממה שהופיעו בפרסומות הוצגו על ידי דימויים חוזרים כגון: הבית בעל הגג האדום, מגדל המים, החקלאות העברית והתעשייה העברית. הפרסומת הציגה את הרעיונות והערכים הציונים כדי  להנגיש אותם לציבור הרחב ועל מנת לקדם את תוצריה, בפרט תוצרי המשק הישראלי המתפתח.

An analysis of advertisements from the Israeli press between 1967 and 2004 demonstrates that images of the sea and shore reflect a wide variety of attitudes towards Nature and the immediate environment held by the advertisements’ readership over the years. The multiple meanings attributed to the image of the sea by Israeli advertisers are rooted primarily in the iconography of the mass media (as a sign of leisure, fun and globalization). Sea images in advertising differ from sea imagery in the visual arts, where the sea functions as a border, and from literature, where the sea may symbolize Diaspora. The sea takes on different interpretations in advertisements to reflect the era and the language contemporary with the advertisement. The present article examines the attitudes reflecting values adopted by society and sociocultural change in Israeli society and its references to Nature as seen through a study of sea imagery in advertising.