After years of stealing ideas from ad agencies overseas, Israeli ad-men finally get a taste from their own soft drink: In 2004 an Israeli TV ad for a chocolate drink showed actor Michael Hanegbi sleepwalking through the desert to the tune of Ravel’s Bolero until he gets his hands on a chilled bottle of Yotvata Chocolate Milk Drink. Yesterday, Coca Cola ran a 30 minute spot during the Superbowl with the exact same premise, and the exact same music. There seems there’s no way this could be a mere coincidence.
The original TV spot, directed by Israel foremost commercials director Shachar Segal, was so popular, it spawned a slew of spin-offs by the same dairy company and made Hanegbi quite famous. The original ad is unavailable online, but here is one of the subsequent spin-offs:
And here is the bigger budgeted, better directed Superbowl Coke ad from last night. Coincidence?
