The Israel Embassy’s welcome video for President Obama has attracted a lot of attention, not all of it flattering.
Is it JibJab, i.e., is its crude animation post-modern and self-aware? Or is it Birdemic, i.e., not so much?
An embassy spokesman tells the Washington Post that either way, its impact is what matters:
“It may not be what you see from a government but this is a way we can cut through and raise awareness,” a spokesman from the embassy said, calling the response to the clip “phenomenal” and noting that the video was all over Twitter and had gotten picked up as far away as Australia.
A couple of notes:
–Its mashup of speeches into "dialogue," as Tablet has noted, recalls the ECI Obama-Bibi- "debate" we exposed here last fall. Not sure that’s a good thing.
–The opening animation of the plane flying to Israel is a direct steal from one of those CDs they tuck into the back page pocket of Hebrew textbooks for Sunday schools. And maybe vindicated by Obama saying, upon landing: טוב להיות שוב בארץ
One more thing: "Thank You For Being A Friend" was, as has been repeatedly noted, the theme to The Golden Girls, but it was, before that — in 1978 — a hit for Andrew Gold, a Jewish singer-composer who died too soon. Here’s the real thing:
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