Israeli Ad Agency Outwits Haredi Billboard Defacers

Original Poster

Last week an Israeli ad agency launched a clever campaign to promote public awareness of violence against women in Israel, outwitting the Haredi vandals who regularly deface billboards and posters that include images of women.

As Haaretz reported last week,

In a campaign coinciding with the United Nations' International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, marked on November 25, Israeli advertising firm Twisted tackled the issue of excluding women from the public sphere, Ice.co.il reported. 

Defaced Poster

In the ultra-Orthodox city of Bnei Brak, images of women on billboards are deemed immodest, especially if their knees, elbows and hair are uncovered. This is also true in Jerusalem, where advertisers refused to run ads on buses that picture women, out of fear the ads would be vandalized. 

Instead of fearing vandalism in Bnei Brak, Twisted used it in its favor, to help it get the message across: They put up a double-layered poster featuring a woman's face, and her hair and shoulders uncovered, knowing it would get vandalized, Ice reported.

Less than 24 hours after the poster went up, just as Twisted had predicted, the face of the woman in the poster was ripped off, the report said, revealing a message that read, "International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women 25.11.03."