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Friday October 26, 2007

Let’s reintroduce the ‘Star of David’ brand

by stephen sinclair

I am in the business of making television commercials, and all I hear from the ad agency and the client during the shoot is how big their logo should be, and how many times the name of the brand should be mentioned or seen during the commercial.

No one cares what the commercial looks like; it is just all about the brand name, screamed at the viewer.

The brand is, in fact, branded into their mind.

The Palestinians have created a great brand, recognized and accepted, worldwide. Just as the word Coke evokes positive images and feelings in most of us, so it follows that when you say the word Palestinian, the world thinks exactly what they have been sold. Humiliation. Loss. Occupation. Israeli aggression. Advertising works, and the Palestinians have now done enough to demand shelf space, as long as they come to accept that they must produce a stable and user-friendly product.

Israel used to have a great brand. The best and most recognized in the history of the world: the Star of David brand.

I could go back in history and recount the beginnings and biblical stories about the Star of David, but I don’t need to. You and the world know what the Star of David brand is. It says: historical, undeniable Jewish identity and rights.

Nothing says Israel better than the Star of David. You can say the word Israel or Zionist or Jew, and the world will have mixed feelings. Yet say, “Star of David,” and the world cannot deny its historical relevance.

David was the king of Israel. He built Jerusalem. It is the city Jesus died in. For the West, especially, to deny the Star of David brand would be to deny their own existence.

Yet we have abandoned the Star of David brand name in favor of catch-phrases, press releases and sound bites that evoke no emotions in anyone, including Jews. We have taken our flagship name off the market because we are scared that in a PC world, nationalism hurts the brand.

The fact is, if you asked most people around the world whom the city of Jerusalem actually belongs to, they would say the Palestinians, because that is what they have been sold. Palestinian nationalism.

So it was, that last night, sitting on my porch, thinking about this, my mind naturally went to King Olaf of Norway. In 1940, when the Nazis occupied Norway, they made a proclamation that as of the next day Jews must wear the Star of David on their clothing. The next day, the Jewish population did what they were told and applied a yellow star of identification to their garments. It separated them from the rest of the population instantly because everyone knew the Star of David brand and what it meant.

That same day King Olaf, the old Norwegian monarch, who rode his horse daily in the capital city of Oslo, appeared as always — with one distinct difference. He wore the Star of David on his jacket. It was a heroic act of solidarity with his Jewish countrymen. Word spread through the country like wildfire, and by lunchtime the entire population was wearing the Star of David brand, and was proud to do so.

Thanks, Olaf. Thanks, Norway. Great, true story, and much to be learned from it.

The Star of David brand had been dormant before the Second World War as the Jews of Europe and America tried to assimilate. It is an ironic fact that our greatest enemy ever single-handedly re-launched the Star of David brand.

Would Israel have been reborn without the Holocaust? Perhaps, but the reintroduction of the Star of David, as a stand-alone brand, worthy of shelf-space, could not, after that war, be denied any longer.

We need to reintroduce the Star of David brand to the world. Not the Holocaust version that evokes sympathy and guilt, but the King David kind, the King Olaf kind. One that evokes the best emotions: strength, solidarity, justice, freedom, the undeniable truth of David’s Israel.

It is said the Jews are good businesspeople, sharp marketers of goods and services. Let’s not disappoint. Let’s put the Star of David brand back on the shelves.

If we can summon the courage and confidence to go to the world with the Star of David brand story, it would be the greatest truth-in-advertising campaign of all time, and people would line up to buy it like it was the Christmas shopping season.

Stephen Sinclair is a Los Angeles-based writer-director. This piece previously appeared in the Jerusalem Post.

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