The Unilever Company in Israel appears will be next to feel the brunt of a chareidi community boycott after engaging in a major to’eva add campaign seeking to attract the nation’s youth.
Ironically, what sparked the fury is an article appearing in the secular The Marker, which expressed surprised over the poor taste exhibited by Unilever, expressing disapproval from the secular community as well.
Rav Motka Blau of the Mishmeres HaKodesh told Kol Chai Radio on Monday night that the rabbis are studying the situation and appropriate action would be taken.
Unilever, unlike most other brand names in Israel, does not seek to promote its name in Israel. Many of the firm’s products are found in chareidi homes, including Telma, B & B products, Clik chocolate products, BluBand, Vered HaGalil, Klean detergent and much more. As such, most shoppers are unaware they are purchasing Unilever products, perhaps permitting the ad campaign to move ahead without most shoppers making the connection.
According to one marketing study, in 2007, Unilever ranked number two in the chareidi sector, indicating a nationwide chareidi boycott as was seen against Shefa Shuk and others will indeed have an impact on the company.
Unilever has not issued a statement on the report.
(Yechiel Spira – YWN Israel)
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9 Responses
As such, most shoppers are unaware they are purchasing Unilever products
SO WHAT ARE THEY ADVERTISING???? SOMETHING WE DONT KNOW WHAT WE ARE BUYING????
we are buying various brands not knowing that they are owned by the unilever corporation or for that matter, what corporation owns the licensed name to a particular product.
who knew that when you bought Hellmanns mayo, you bought it from unilever – I didn’t until I just looked at a bottle.
there are many products that used to be independently owned that have been bought out by large corporations.
I think I know what the campaing was; what was the “major to’eva”? It’s a standard inappropriate advertisement…
No more Hellmans mayonaise?! What are we going to do?!
Isn’t “Unilever” sold in the United States too?
The advocates of To’Eva have infiltrated many of the major corporations, and are using their positions of power to brainwash the public into approving their perverted behavior.
Unilever, an Anglo-Dutch corporation, is a global conglomerate with hundreds if not thousands of brands, and is generally sympathetic to kashruth. For a boycott to be effective against one of the world’s largest companies, it would have to include Muslims and Christians. Remember, worldwide that are a lot more people into “to’eva” than there are frum Jews, and might jeapordize the willingness of non-Jewish companies to get hecksherim (it’s one thing to ask a company to change it s ingredients, it’s another to ask them to boycott a major segment of the non-Jewish market as a condition of getting a hecksher).
can someone explain what exactly is the issue?
are they advocating a world wide boycott or only one in Israel?