Ad industry wants to confront ultra-orthodox extremists in Israel - by creating an image of a man, made up from images of women

In Israel, there is a unique problem with using women on billboards and other OOH advertising.
For more than a decade, more than 3000 women in Jerusalem have seen their images defaced on public billboards – their faces scratched out, spray painted, covered with graffiti, and in extreme cases even burned down.
This vandalism is typically carried out by ultra-orthodox extremists who believe women shouldn’t be seen in public.
It doesn’t matter who the women are – politicians, nurses, models and actors have all seen themselves erased from the city streets.

Tsahi Halevi, made out of the portraits of thousands of women who were defaced over the years. “We conceived Hidden Portraits as a Trojan horse”, Julio Alvarez, Creative Director at Cloudfactory, explains. “At a first glance, it seems like just another portrait of Tsahi Halevi. But taking a closer look, the billboard reveals its true nature: a portrait that consists of hundreds of portraits – those of the women who’ve been defaced from advertising billboards in Jerusalem over the past decade by ultra-orthodox extremists.”
The poster calls passersby to “Take a closer look” followed by “There are places in Israel this is the only way to present women in the public sphere”. Once activated, a QR code on the poster will launch a mini-site with further information about the project and those using Google Maps will see a female version of the poster on their mobile instead of the real-life street “male” poster – the female version actually features Lucy Ahrish, Tsahi’s wife and a journalist/news anchor who’s image was erased several times in recent years.
The campaign calls on national and local governments as well as law enforcement bodies to do more in the fight against these terror acts.
Hadas Danieli Yellin, Executive Director of the IWN (Israel Women Network)