RAFAEL's Dinga Dinga Dee - Racism, Chavinism, Patriarchist Militarism, Made In Israel

[Metar]

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If you wish, read:

Iron Eagle Nominee: Israeli Armsdog-Millionaires Assault Bollywood, Good Taste

Let's say you're a defense-company marketing executive. And you want to make a splash at the Indian defense ministry's annual air show. Do you: (a) buy expensive gifts for New Delhi's generals; (b) treat the press to Kingfishers and samosas; (c) produce a Bollywood-esque video featuring bare-midriff girls, flower-draped missiles, and the catch phrase "dinga dinga dee?"

Unfortunately for us, Israeli arms-maker Rafael chose C. Which means we may have just found the most atrocious defense video of all time, just days into the Iron Eagles — our celebration of the awesomely bad videos of the military-industrial complex. Trust me, Slumdog Millionaire it ain't. Thanks to Stephen Trimble for dredging this up. You bastard.

Every element of the promotional film is just plain wrong. The sari-clad, "Indian" dancers look all too ashkenaz and zaftig. The unshaven, hawk-nosed, leather-clad leading man appears to be a refugee from You Don't Mess With the Zohan. Then of course, there's the implication that the Indian military is somehow like a helpless woman who "need(s) to feel safe and sheltered."

But for my rupees, the worst thing about the video is the damn theme song they've concocted for the thing. To pimp its weapons, Rafael produced a sitar-heavy twist on Rick Astley's love letter to Satan, "Together Forever," complete with a new chorus: "Dinga dinga, dinga dinga, dinga dinga, dinga dinga dee." The rest of us now have to suffer for that bad, bad choice.

One has to know Israeli culture and life in order to fully appreciate the racial hints and undertones in the video. It's a tune catchy enough to set /b/ on fire, and perhaps the worst bit of advertisement ever - even worse than the Goodyear Polyglass ads - simply because you don't market to an audience by presenting it as weak and helpless, even if your product is arms. Also note the heavy Israeli accents of the, you guessed it, Israeli actors.

 

[Touring Mars]

The scary thing is, if Israel used that in the Eurovision Song contest, they'd probably win by a mile...

It is truly disturbing that there are people who think this was a great sales pitch... but then again, we are talking about people who make their living selling weapons

Also, thanks alot Metar... I now have that crap stuck in my head...

 

[Metar]

We Interweb residents think /b/, others think Eurovision. When my grandmother saw that film, her first reaction was "that should be our Eurovision contestant".

The official RAFAEL statement, published in the papers yesterday, was (roughly translated): "For every foreign arms-show, we prepare a promotional video related to the local culture, and we almost always win the award for Best Promotion. Indian reception to this video was warm."
I doubt that last sentence.

EDIT: I have tracked down the original statement. Full response here - that's gotta be the only site on the interwebs that doesn't condemn this video, but they're also not objective...

StratPost spoke to Assy Josephy the Director of Exhibitions for Rafael about how this video came about. "In Israel we have Jewish people from India, so we know about Bollywood and the song and dance numbers. Israelis are generally aware of Indian culture. This video is to help build familiarity between India and Israel and Rafael," he says.

But this is not the first time Rafael has exhibited something of the sort. Josephy says Rafael has displayed such videos in many countries with various themes customized to the culture of the locations. "In Brazil we did a video of football. Football is very big there. In Paris the video had a theme that included Napoleon and the Renaissance. In Poland our video had themes of Chopin and Copernicus. In England it was about Shakespeare," says Josephy.

 

[Omnis]

Wow, this is really twisted.

 

[Beerz]

Wow. Just... wow.

 

[Touring Mars]

Nicely done...