The one rabbi to have when you're having more than one

Last update - 10:30 04/10/2009       
Shas' Rabbi Ovadia Yosef - now starring in Carlsberg beer ads
By Nati Toker

 

Carlsberg beer usually advertises using good-looking young men and women enjoying their alcoholic beverages in a pub or other enticing settings; but to attract more ultra-Orthodox customers, the firm has adopted a rather different public figure - former chief Sephardi rabbi and Shas spiritual leader Rabbi Ovadia Yosef.

 

Over the weekend Carlsberg, owned in Israel by the Central Bottling Company (Coca-Cola Israel), distributed a calendar for the 5770 Jewish year along with the Shas newspaper Yom Leyom featuring pictures of Rabbi Yosef along with a holiday message from him.

 

Using famous rabbis and other ultra-Orthodox leaders is common in advertising for the sector. For example, pictures of company executives being blessed by various rabbis are common in such ads, as well as written recommendations from leading rabbis.
 
But the Carlsberg calendar is considered exceptional and unprecedented. Ultra-Orthodox marketers who saw the calendar were shocked, and several called it disrespectful.

 

Carlsberg started its marketing efforts to the ultra-Orthodox community over the past year using the Neto advertising agency. The difference between this campaign and the normal beer brand ads, which focus on enjoyment and having a good time, is the ultra-Orthodox marketing utilizes messages of the health value of drinking beer. This tactic enabled Rabbi Yosef to agree to appear in the calendar.

 

Another unique side to the advertisement is the rabbi did not receive any direct payment for appearing in the calendar. But Carlsberg and other products of the Central Bottling Company are under the kashrut supervision of the Badatz Beit Yosef organization, which is Rabbi Yosef's own kashrut supervisory body. There is fierce competition between the various supervisory bodies (worth millions), and each organization tries to find ways to provide added marketing value to the firms that pay them. It seems that Rabbi Yosef's appearance in the calendar is part of this help in marketing in return for the kashrut supervision.

 

Carlsberg has sponsored a number of conferences and events held by Rabbi Ovadia's family members, and company executives visited the rabbi's house in the past few months and received his blessings.

 

The Neto advertising agency did not respond to this report by press time.