El Al Israel Airlines has issued a tender for advertising to the religious sector. Four groups dealing with advertising to the religious sector are participating in the bid: Gal Advertising owned by Benny Gal; The Haredi Group, which is affiliated with the Shaveh Pirsum agency and Rabbi Israel Eichler, who is editor of the "Mahaneh Haharedi" newspaper, and a television personality; ad agency Potential, owned by Motti Bersky, and the Afikim agency, owned by Yigal Revach.
The budget amounts to several hundred thousand dollars. It should be noted that Rabbi Eichler’s involvement in the tender has caused a furor among the other agencies, who say that using a media personality in the presentation process is a means of pressuring El Al. "Journalists are used as for protection racket purposes. Advertisers are given to understand this journalist may use his position and power in relation to advertising", informed sources say.
However, the other bidders have also brought in media personalities for the El Al presentation. Afikim turned up with journalist Shalhevet Hasdiel, and Gal with Aharon Kornfeld of weekend newspaper "Yom Shishi".
The El Al account is handled by Ariely Advertising. To date, El Al has never targeted advertising specifically to the religious sector. Tower Air, which for years has invested in ad campaigns geared to the religious sector, represents El Al’s main threat.
In response to reports, El Al marketing department representative Adi Zecharia said: "We asked four agencies to make presentations, as we wanted to see how they handle the religious sector. After viewing the presentations, we decided to review the matter". Zecharia declined explain the meaning of his statement.
The agencies have not yet received the results of the tender.