The Religious Zionist Photoshop of the Week Award goes to...Egged for this crazy picture in a full page ad in בשבע Besheva (actually, it goes to גל אורן לרנר Gal Oren Lerner, the ad firm that designed the ad).
In any case, the ad, which thanks the "Rosen Family" for "not forgetting to validate their Rav Kav", features a typical Religious Zionist family (if not only that's a bit less religious than your average B'sheva family).
Yet, the ad caught my eye because of the picture, which just seemed off. The woman's hair band doesn't sit quite right, nor does her skirt (which is totally wrong for her anyway), nor her husband's kipah. A quick Shutterstock search yielded the attached picture, which indicates that the family's actual name might not indeed be "Rosen".
Then Rena noticed that while the woman's body is the same, they actually painted someone else's face on, which is just downright creepy.
With all this attention for this ad, I started to wonder: Why does Egged care so much that people validate their Rav Kav? In the ad copy on the bottom, we learn how validation gives Egged important information about travel habits, bus line and the like. Still, is it so important that Egged would pay tens of thousands of shekels to remind us to validate?
It turns out that "validate" is a euphemism for "swiping" the card on a trip. In other words, Egged is encouraging us to pay, and not just ride for free - which I'm all for. You should swipe your card, and "riding without swiping" is another term for "stealing".
Now though, the family's identity - who they were photoshopped to look like, is quite important. Who exactly does Egged think is stealing from them? Who are they accusing - or not accusing - of "forgetting" to swipe their cards when they get on at the back of the bus?
That is a very interesting question indeed.
