Babes and Bikinis: Israel Plans to Revamp Its Image

JERUSALEM, April 28, 2007 — -- All countries carry a certain stereotype: Some associate pasta and emotion with Italy, the queen and bad weather with Britain, flashing lights and high-speed trains with Japan, and conflict and religion with Israel.

Israeli officials at the consulate in New York have decided to try to rebrand the negative image associated with their country and have approached Maxim, dubbed America's most-popular men's magazine, to launch a public relations campaign to help them.

The aim of the project is to change Israel's image from a country associated with constant conflict to a different, sexy, fun and vibrant place.

The project began six months ago when Israeli officials in the United States discovered (through market research) that men between the ages of 18 and 35 were uninterested in Israel, and considered the country "irrelevant."

Maxim is going to run a special Israel edition this July that will promote the country to its 2.5 million readership, and the magazine hopes it will revamp Israel's image in the eyes of young American men.

A team from the magazine arrived in the beach town of Tel Aviv, Israel's tourism capital, this March for a five-day photo shoot. Top Israeli female models were hired to market Tel Aviv as a modern, vivid and "sexy city" -- a fun tourist destination. The young girls were photographed frolicking and posing in their bikinis on Tel Aviv beach.

"The aim of the campaign is to show the different faces of Israel," David Saranga, from the media and public affairs department at the Israeli consulate in New York, told ABC News. "The international media tends to concentrate on one dimension alone -- the [Israeli-Palestinian] conflict. We hope we can broaden people's view."

Saranga said Maxim is an excellent platform for delivering this message and will target the audience it is hoping to convert -- young men.

Tel-Aviv was the natural choice, Saranga said, because, "It is sophisticated, fast paced and bustling with culture, creativity and excitement."

Israelis are all too aware of the negative image their country has due to the long-term conflict with its Arab neighbors.

An American-Israeli owner of a coffee shop in Jerusalem (who wished to remain anonymous) told ABC News that because of its constant conflict with the Palestinians, "Israel has attracted only negative press," adding that she believes the conflict with the Palestinians is exaggerated and that "life in Israel is as normal as any other Western country."

When told about the Maxim magazine project, she said, "This is great: Anything that portrays Israel in a positive light is welcome. We have to try to reach every type of person out there."

Other Israelis were not sure whether Israeli models posing provocatively in their bikinis for a men's magazine is the best way to sell their country, but they were willing to give it a chance.

Lindsay Citerman, an Israeli who studies Judaism in Jerusalem, said, "Tel Aviv is a sexy city, but I am not sure if this is the best way to sell Israel to Americans."

But she conceded, ''In our world, maybe that is the way that you have to do it."

Citerman believes that it is the political reality that should be changed first -- not the image.

"Israel is in a constant state of war," she said. "It is hard to change this image if you don't change the state of war."

Avital Sterngold, Citerman's friend, said that she lives in the United Kingdom, and that the image of Israel there is very negative, "'because people there oppose Israel's policies."

She doubts Maxim's PR campaign will change people's political views, but it might increase their interest in coming to Israel on holiday.

While it "can be very hard to measure success in a PR campaign" as Saranga put it, Israeli officials seem to be determined to create new ways of promoting their country's image abroad. And everyone knows girls in bikinis sell.