Epic New Cinema Commercial
To help raise funds for our biggest and most innovative project The Negev Challenge have just produced an emotive 60-second commercial that will start appearing in the run-up to the High Holy Days.
Entitled “Dinner in the Desert”, shot entirely on location in Israel, and voiced by eminent stage & film actor Henry Goodman, the commercial explains the need to build a new life in the Negev for the thousands of families who are being squeezed out of Israel’s overpopulated central and northern cities.
The Negev Challenge is a great example of how JNF’s work has evolved – not only creating water supplies and fertile land, but building whole new communities to address sweeping demographic changes. Our work in 21st Century Israel may have evolved, but we can’t take it for granted that in 21st Century Britain people know anything about it. Many of today’s generation are less engaged with Israel than their parents and grandparents. They may not read a communal newspaper. They may not realise that even now, Israelis depend on us for some of the vital resources of everyday life.
This is why we decided to run an advertising campaign which shows a whole new generation of potential supporters what we do in a modern, eye-catching way. There is no better example of JNF’s relevance in the 21st Century than The Negev Challenge. We’ll be using the advertising in the months and years to come as a platform for an energetic new round of fundraising.
Launching on Friday 7th September, “Dinner in the Desert” will initially run for 4 weeks at the Everyman Cinema in Hampstead and Screen on the Hill in Belsize Park. You may even catch a decent movie along with the ad! At both venues in September, the ad will run in the programme before hotly awaited new movie ‘Atonement’ starring Keira Knightley. You can then see it in performances of movies such as Hollywood blockbuster ‘The Bourne Ultimatum’ starring Matt Damon, and the darkly funny coming-of-age Britflick ‘Hallam Foe’ starring Jamie Bell of ‘Billy Elliot’ fame. Click on the cinema images below for screening times:
“Dinner in the Desert” will go on to appear at cinemas playing host to the Jewish Film Festival as it tours round the country from November 2007 to March 2008.
Accompanying the commercial, we will be running a series of Press advertisements in the Jewish Chronicle, Jewish News and Jewish Telegraph. For a sneak preview, see the links below:
For the story of the making of the commercial, click here .