White House Mad about Use of President's Face to Sell Cars in Israel

12/03/96

The Associated Press reported that the White House is angry with Chrysler's dealership in Israel. Israeli Chrysler dealer Automotive Equipment Ltd., put up 250 billboards across Israel that Portray President Clinton as if he were saying "The only problem with other American cars is that they're not Chrysler." The dealership also placed the ads in newspapers.

Richard Scorza, spokesman for the U.S. Embassy in Tel Aviv said that the ads "went beyond the bounds of propriety." Although U.S. officials said they were not happy with the ads, they did not know if they could legally stop the Israeli firm from using the unauthorized image of the President.

White House spokesman Barry Toiz said, "use of the president's image for commercial purposes is very much discouraged." He also said that the matter would be referred to the White House legal office.

Mordechai Kalir, vice president of Automotive Equipment Ltd., said last Thursday that he assumed his ad agency, Dahaf, had gotten permission from the White House before they presented him with the idea. "Why can't we use him? I'd like to believe they offered us this after consulting their legal advisers," he said.

The ad agency Dahaf maintains that it has done nothing wrong: "He's a public official. Public images, there's no problem using them," said Orna Degani, the company's account executive for the Chrysler dealer.

Dgani said Dahaf has used Britain's Prince Charles on campaigns before, and that a different agency had used Britain's former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. She argued that the ads were favorable to the U.S., "because he's promoting American industry."

Degani admitted that Dahaf rarely used Israeli politicians in its advertisements because their permission is difficult to get. A spokesman for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said, "you couldn't slap Netanyahu's image up there to sell video games or whatever . . . They'd be sued in a second."

Paul Dever -- The Auto Channel