Heaven Can Wait

I don't know what the public reaction will be to this anti-drug message from the Israel Anti-Drug Authority. The spot imitates the online video rhetoric of jihadist suicide bombers who say goodbye to their families and announce that their violent acts will send them to heaven. Some TV stations have refused to air it, as a result of concerns about possibly offending viewers with the comparison. In the images of the young partying Israeli, drug and alcohol paraphernalia take the place of bomb equipment and religious trappings, as other versions of the spoofs in posters make clear.


One of the Anti-Drug Authority's earlier videos in which caller "Shirin" imagines that she is being persecuted by unseen assailants has generated a pro-marijuana legalization response on YouTube that shows the police powers of the Israeli state being exercised.

(Thanks to Nedra Weinreich of the Spare Change blog on social marketing for the link to the suicide bomber ad.)