This is one of those instances when an ad campaign about a controversial issue generated a story in the New York Times.

The New Israel Fund returned to Passion Marketing with an assignment to communicate another highly sensitive issue to its funders as well as to the broader American Jewish community. The subject: The quickly approaching Israel/Gaza Disengagement, an act which has the potential to lead to regional peace, or towards a disastrous eruption between the different segments of Israel's fiercely opinionated population.

The New Israel Fund, an American organization that promotes democracy, equality, civil and human rights for all Israeli citizens, has partnered several times over the years with Passion Marketing, when needing to communicate delicate issues of extraordinary sensitivity and emotion. Through our work with the New Israel Fund, we have learned to navigate the rough waters of several of Israel's controversial issues when communicating them to an American audience.

In regards to the Disengagement, the New Israel Fund does not see its organizational role as political, creating a campaign either for or against Disengagement. But rather, they see their influence as working to protect Israel's democracy during these very uncertain times. They are concerned about radical elements among the Jewish settler community, who have already spoken out advocating violence against the Disengagement, the army and the Government, in order to destabilize Israel's rule of law and hence, its democracy. The New Israel Fund has established grants which will be made to Israeli organizations, both left and right, secular and religious, Jewish and Arab, who will work to promote dialogue and civility during the difficult days ahead.

The New Israel Fund's goal in this campaign is to raise money for these grants through an ad campaign in the Jewish press and through radio spots.

Station KQED, the NPR affiliate in San Francisco, explained that the station would not accept advocacy ads, but would accept ads identifying who the New Israel Fund is. Passion Marketing then submitted a sponsorship ad that read:

"SUPPORT FOR KQED COMES FROM THE NEW ISRAEL FUND; PROMOTING EQUALITY AND SOCIAL JUSTICE FOR ALL ISRAELIS. NIF.ORG"

The sponsorship ad received initial approval from the station. Several days later, however, we received a rejection of the ad from the NPR affiliate, explaining:

"KQED/SF has pulled your client's schedule to start next week. Since the copy was first approved (several weeks ago), the station has received several listener complaints about NPR's coverage. The thing is the complaints were that the NPR news coverage was both "pro" Israel AND "pro" Palestinian. I know this seems odd and doesn't make much sense, but the fact is people took time to call and voice their opinions. Because of the number of listener comments, the station feels this isn't a good time to run the NIF schedule."

The story of this rejection was then picked up by both the New York Times and the San Francisco Chronicle. The Times placed it on the front page of the Arts Section.

No matter how adroitly we deal in the controversial issues of our clients, we are learning that sometimes, one kind of controversy stirs another. The world of issues and causes is never dull.

For more information on New Israel Fund, go to www.nif.org or contact Naomi Paiss at npaiss@nif.org

Thank you for reading this Inform from Passion Marketing.

GARY WEXLER, FOUNDER AND PRESIDENT
Passion Marketing - Capturing the Intangible. Marketing for non profits.