Secrets from the bedroom: The damage that campaigns like the "nida" of network stars can cause to the world of marketing

The discourse on the laws of Nida has never been juicier.

While the Slavs of our country boast of keeping Torah and mitzvos, there are things they may not have wanted you to know.

So how did it happen that Yael Bar Zohar is sued for a quarter of a million shekels, what does all this say about the professional ethics of online influencers, and what damage does it produce to the world of marketing?

Ditza Keren

19/07/2022

Tuesday, 19 July 2022, 17:44 Updated: 18:06

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Things have been sharpened.

Yael Bar Zohar (Photo: screenshot, Instagram)

Let's start with the introductory summary: then network stars such as Yael Bar Zohar, Shai Mika, Michal Ansky and Miri Cohen praised the observance of the Nida laws, and after following Guy Pines' revelation, we discovered that the whole move was an orchestrated campaign funded by Rebbetzin Ruthie Leviev Yelizrov and the "Smoke Woman" association.

The story, as is well known, ignited a public storm that spread on the net (as on the net) like fire in a field of thorns.

Other influencers like Nicole Reidman began to express support for their peers in the profession, while others came out against them claiming hypocrisy and religious preaching.

there is plenty to discover

Allegedly, this is a legitimate campaign by an organization that works to promote Torah and mitzvos among secular women.

This is not the first time and certainly not the last that beautiful women receive money in exchange for promoting products on their Instagram account.

The thing is, this is not a commercial.

The "This is your day" campaign came to sell conservative values ​​under the guise of freedom of expression.

So why did this create the commotion?

Maybe because Yael Bar Zohar did not just stand up one day and say, today I will tell the world about my sex life, but did it because she was offered money?

At least when we are advertised with petticoats, shampoo or hair dye, the purpose is clear and known in advance.

While the question of whether there is room for promoting halakhic values ​​in secular media channels can be debated, it should have been openly stated that this is a sponsored campaign and not spontaneous confessions from the bedroom.

Bar Zohar, it should be noted, claimed that this was not hidden.

Still, a shout arose, so we are required to understand why.

If the matter of the payment received by the Slavs was not visible and clear - it will be clear about the truth of the message.

How is it possible that women who to this day have starred in gossip columns have suddenly become "observant of halakhah"?

And if they themselves do not really keep Nida properly, by what right do they preach to Israeli women about "family purity," and what does that say about professional ethics?

Anyway, judging by the amount of searches for the word ‘nida’ in Google, it seems that the affair explosion did only good for the campaign.

Advertising through influencers - not at any cost

Given that there are no guidelines regarding the professional ethics of online influencers,

The world of marketing and advertising has erupted anyway, and for many years large sections of the public no longer believe everything we tell them.

If influencer marketing is supposed to restore a sense of authenticity and credibility among consumers, why spoil it for a handful of dollars?

Lack of proper disclosure, beyond the fact that it may constitute a violation of the law, ultimately harms not only the influencer himself but also the brands he promotes and the entire advertising industry.

But wait, the problem is much broader and affects the entire industry.

Who made users treat marketing like a joke?

The marketing industry has expanded miraculously in recent years.

It has been stretched, updated, developed new roles, methods and new tools.

In the jungle as in the jungle, there are many detours to get to the destination faster, and if possible then also round corners and bypass important landmarks when no one is looking

.

This has led to a tsunami of offers from "agencies" seeking to rescue, promote, and flip small businesses online, bombard them with leads, or turn them into wizards at product launches.

It turns out that half of the country are experts who teach digital courses (because what does the subject matter? The main thing is to repeat the same mantras that others wrote and found in Google, even if we did not really check it, because we may not have the required experience), and the other half know .

Yes, the digital marketing experts who want to teach you courses and teach you how to market - they also have experts who teach them how to market courses.

And it does not end there.

Phrases like "crazy operation" for a discount (which is not really a discount but at most a promise "on the ice" that the person who wrote it did not really make an effort to think of something convincing, he just worked on an automaton, and that's what it looks like), lower the discourse to market. The Carmel would descend to it.

All of these flooded the feed of us all and created a sense of frustration that erodes users ’trust.

When you do not keep a promise stub again and again, and underestimate the intelligence of the user, the question arises as to

.

There are quite a few talented people in Israel who talk about the matter and can be fascinated by ideas.

And if marketers, who have the ability to generate wide exposure and know a trick or two about how to "ignite" the audience's imagination - are abusing that power, then they are hurting us all, and someone needs to stop it before it's too late.

It is not possible to scribble them all all the time, so marketers who want to respect the profession and get out of mediocrity should go against marketing messages that are, simply, sorry for the phrase - pure remorse.

It turns out that Halacha also has celeb assumptions

If we go back for a moment to Taylor Malchov, the first to perhaps ignite the match that turned Nida into a buzzword, critics who came from the religious sector claimed that as a bachelor, she was supposed to keep touching, but Nida.

This means that she is not supposed to have sex at all at this stage of her life, and all this pride in keeping the commandment of nida is fundamentally embarrassing.

In response, Malchov claimed that after consulting with no less than five rabbis, she was told that if she was already having a relationship before the wedding, then at least he would be with Nida.

If the rabbis approve, who are we to argue?

Media woman Einav Galili summed it up nicely:

"The situation is completely different when it comes to network influencers with hundreds of thousands of followers, who enjoy all the privileges the secular and liberal world has to offer, and at the same time serve as paid presenters for messages of impurity and purity, under the guise of inner truth. , And quickly, from the conservative-religious revolution that is currently shaking the United States, is that women, like other sectors still struggling for basic rights, are very dangerous to fall asleep on guard. "

Duty of due diligence and the lawsuit on the way

Regardless of the content of the campaign, section 7 (c) of the Consumer Protection Law stipulates that an advertisement that may bring a person is likely to say that what is said in it is not an advertisement, as well as an advertisement presented in the form of an article, article or newspaper article. Misleading advertisement, even if the actual content is established and not misleading.

If that is not enough, in an official statement from July 2021, the Consumer Protection Authority sought to emphasize that ensuring an incentive in exchange for a positive opinion by network influencers would be considered misleading the public.

Against this background, a class action lawsuit was filed last week against Bar Zohar and Mika by an anonymous young woman, who did not prove that she was directly harmed by the advertisement, but claimed that she "felt sadness, insult, anger, frustration and a sense of contempt for her and her rights". It has been openly stated that this is in fact a sponsored campaign.

In response, Bar Zohar wrote on her Instagram account: "As with many panels or public cultural events, as far as I know the participants received compensation for their participation, certainly without being told what to say or not to say. For the 'Smokers of Women' association. At no stage was any attempt at denial or 'concealment' made of any kind and things were even sharpened later beyond the law. There were no elements of coercion, solicitation or incitement in these interviews, God forbid. "The family) in Instush, which is not worthy of public discussion. I believe that these conversations have an important place in the Israeli public and are worthy of discussion."

"The interviews were tagged as part of the 'This is your day' campaign" (Photo: screenshot, Instagram)

The marketing message of the "Smoke a Woman" campaign is misleading in itself

As a rule, what a woman does or does not do in the bedroom is her private matter, except that this statement of the slavery of our country invites a blatant invasion of privacy.

When the whole country talks about your sex life, the question arises where is the modesty that everyone is talking about?

If there is a marketing message for a "woman smoker" campaign, it is confused, inconsistent, not to mention paradoxical, when on the one hand he preaches conservative values ​​and on the other hand showcases everything the religious establishment seeks to hide.

It is not yet clear whether the class action lawsuit against Bar Zohar will hold water in court, but what is certain is going to be tumultuous.

And if the aim of the campaign was to provoke a public discourse on the laws of nida and the purity of the family, then it can be said with confidence that it succeeded, with or without regard to the results of the trial.

What can not be defined as success is the additional whitewashing of the wall that is being built around the authenticity and around the level of credibility that the world of advertising "gains", and as noted above - this is an expanding phenomenon, and it should concern us all.

We are all commanded to contribute to the effort to push it off the podium and the center of the stage - and to make the marketing world know how to produce moves that bring profit to advertisers, value to consumers and a drop of trust in users' intelligence - instead of looking for shortcuts.

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