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PNN report: Ad of Housing Bank Crushes dreams of Children in Refugee Camps


Dans les rues de Cisjordanie, il y a de nombreuses affiches publicitaires, mais aucune d'entre elles ne reflètent la vie réelle des villes cisjordaniennes.

Par exemple, l'un des panneaux publicitaires qui a été affiché à l'entrée du camp de réfugiés d'al-Azeh à Bethléem, montre deux filles assises dans un cinéma qui mangent du popcorn; la réalité est que dans les gouvernorats palestiniens et à Bethléem, en particulier, il n'y a aucune salle de cinéma.
La différence ici est claire entre la réalité et l'image que cette publicité veut renvoyer au public. "Souvent, le contenu des publicités n'est pas en adéquation avec la réalité sociale", a déclaré M. al-Aqtash Nash'at, spécialiste de la publicité et maître de conférences à l'Université de Birzeit.
"Nous, (les gens) ne voient pas souvent de publicités qui expriment la situation actuelle, car ces dernières montrent toujours une réalité imaginée afin qu'ils puissent  commencer à rêver», a déclaré al-Aqtash.

Published on Tuesday, 14 February 2012
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In the West Bank's streets, there are many advertisement banners, but none of them reflect real life in the cities of the West Bank. One of the advertisement banners that was put at the entrance of al-Azeh refugee camp in Bethlehem for example shows two girls sitting in the cinema and eating popcorn, though the reality is that in Palestinian governorates and in Bethlehem in particular, there aren't any cinemas.

The difference here is clear between the reality and the image that this advertisement wants to send to the audience. "Usually, the advertisement content doesn't go with the social reality" said Mr. Nash'at al-Aqtash, expert of commercials and a lecturer at Birzeit University.

"We {People} don't often see an advertisement that expresses the current situation, as it always carries out an imagined reality so that they can start dreaming" said al-Aqtash.

The dreams of the Refugee Camp children

An activist of the Popular Committee of al-Azeh Camp, Mazen al-Azeh, commented on this advertisement, "this advertisement is an offensive one for the Palestinians' reality, as they are living in difficult conditions, especially because this advertisement is placed at the entrance of the poorest place in Bethlehem which is the refugee camp."

He also said "I confirm that around 99% of refugee children haven't seen a cinema in their lives, and they dream of the moment when they enter one and watch a movie. This banner hurts children's feelings when they have just a small space to play, and who are deprived of their simplest rights to access the same entertainment tools that children worldwide have."

The Housing Bank's banner is not the only one that doesn't reflect the reality or visualizes the world as being one of dreams and fantasies: several commercials do that.

The question is: is it fair to delude the refugee camp's children of a world that they are banned from living in, just for marketing purposes?