WHERE SUCCESSFUL ADVERTISING MEETS LGBT EQUALITY

Community for Citrus Fruits, Undress an Orange

Members:

A modern woman rides into an orthodox neighborhood on her motor scooter and steals an orange from a cart.

She stops to eat and peels it. She gets looks from an older man and also a young woman who spies her from a window, along with children and others who give her a suspicious look.

The young woman then smiles and opens her dark wrap to reveal her chest better to the woman below -- a sexual echo to the peeling of the orange. She even suggestively grabs an orange at her side, just as her mother sees what's going on and tries to stop her.

Then the young woman is running to the other, jumps onto her scooter as they speed away together.

The music's lyrics sing "To undress an orange." ("Tapuz" means "orange" in Hebrew.)

One Israeli's take on the ad: "As she peels it, the layers of tradition, upbringing, taboos, are being peeled away as well. And as this orthodox woman who sees her, she looks at her and joins her in her journey to the future -- her future, their future, together. It is a contradiction between the "Galuti" (that which originated years ago in the Diaspora) and the Israeli. The values of tradition, religion and fear are being challenged by the values of freedom, and "chutzpa" -- driving a bike in a sleeveless shirt and pants in a religious neighborhood is challenging."

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User Comments
Cece Benjamin
Very sexy, beautiful, liberating. Too bad we don't see more ads like this here in Canada.

Sherry
I love this ad! It is romantic and sexy. Wow, I could sure go for some Tapuz oranges right now.

Adva
Loved the naturality in which the obvious happens -- "running away with the rebelious" happens actually between two women, rather than between a "straight" couple. Also loved the large echo that this has left in Israel when it was on... :o)

Jonathan Bell
First, all the religious iconography of this commercial is Christian, not Jewish. The bell ringing at the beginning, even if it weren't surmounted by a cross, is a church accessory, not synagogue. And the procession of boys led by an obvious clergyman are altar boys led by a priest. No Jewish tradition includes those particular set of clothes. The setting is a Meditteranean Christian village as might be found in Greece or Italy. Yes, the fact that the ad ran in Israel for an Israeli company automatically charges it with a certain amount of the internal Jewish struggle between Dati (religious) and Chofshi (secular). However, I would challenge the quoted Israeli source on the details of Israeli society, religious and secular.

Michal
The ad was aired in Israel, and none of us thought it was a greek village, since it's clearly in Yaffo -- the public it was aimed at recognized it easily. In fact, the oranges actually have the Jaffa sticker I think.
Oh, and secular in Hebrew is 'chiloni', not 'chofshi'.

Tom Osborne
The ad is perfect because it shows the young, beautiful, and hip as modern, free, juicy, sexy, delicious, and liberated in contrast to the old, shrivelled, wrapped up, washed out, closed-off, backward, trapped religious people. It shows a very positive future, led by people who aren't stuck in the stupidity of the past and are willing to express what is really true about themselves and about the vibracy of life.

Holly
Can we get a representation of a real butch? Or must I suffer through more femmes playing butches? Talk about a commercial closet.

Nessa
I think that this ad is rather negative. These women live in "sin." Oranges in Christian symbolism represent the fruit of Adam, his sin. The way these women run away together doesn't destroy this symbolic sin, it only enhances it, saying that they have to run away together. I don't know if the ad purposely put in oranges to make such a statement, but I think they did just because oranges are "pretty."