Stop the Bomb! Israeli confronts Iran in new phone ad
Commercial for ‘smart home’ technology shows entertainer Gidi Gov, purportedly in Tehran, interrupting a nuclear countdown
Israelis may be gravely concerned by the threat posed by a potentially nuclear Iran, but they evidently haven’t lost their sense of humor about it.
A new ad for the national Bezeq phone company’s “smart home” technology features one of the country’s most popular entertainers, Gidi Gov, playing the role of an asthmatic salesman purportedly flying into Tehran airport and nervously clearing passport control.
He grabs a taxi, stops for a snack, and then arrives at an Iranian nuclear control center just as the ayatollahs are in the final seconds of a countdown to launch a nuclear device.
A general’s hand is poised over the red button when Gov bursts into the room through what looks like an air-conditioning grill.
“Stop the bomb! This isn’t the time to blow up the world,” he pleads to the rows full of Iran’s top military and clerical leadership.
“Not now, when Bezeq is offering it’s smart home service,” salesman Gov elaborates rather lamely.
The new service, he then explains, allows subscribers to control lights, heat and various appliances even when they’re not home.
The Iranian top brass is not particularly impressed; Gov finds himself confronted by a large number of uniformed men brandishing machine-guns.
“Okay, Plan B,” he improvises. “Two Persians go into a restaurant…”
The ad was broadcast Friday night in a commercial break during the main TV news on Israel’s Channel 2. Ironically, it played minutes after a news report on millions of Iranians, marching in rallies across the country, chanting “Death to the America” and “Death to Israel,” brandishing anti-Israel and anti-US placards, and burning Israeli and American flags.
It was screened again later in the same news broadcast, minutes after Channel 2’s Middle East affairs analyst had proclaimed that the nuclear deal being negotiated by the US-led world powers and Iran in Vienna is essentially done, “and it’s even worse” than had been expected.
