America in JeruSALEm Globalization, National Identity, and Israeli Advertising

In America in JeruSALEm the authors examine the effects of globalization and Americanization on the national identity of small nations. Using Israel as a case study, Anat First and Eli Avraham analyzed the changes in Israeli advertising over the past two decades. They found that, since the 1990s, Israeli advertisers began using American symbols, values, sights, and heroes to promote diverse products without any consideration of the place they were actually made. The perspective offered in this book-a consideration of advertising as a locus of the tension between national identity and globalization/Americanization-is an innovative one, generating a model that can be used to analyze national identity through advertising in the age of globalization/Americanization. Although many books have focused on numerous aspects of Israeli society, America in JeruSALEm offers a new and accessible perspective on the changes in Israeli identity. Book jacket.

Anat First is professor of communications at Netanya Academic College in Israel. She is coauthor with Hanna Adoni of Structural Dilemmas in the Consolidation Research and Teaching: The Case of the Department of Communication at Hebrew University and coauthor with Eli Avraham of Coverage of Israeli Arabs in Israeli Media. Eli Avraham is senior lecturer of communication at the University of Haifa in Israel. He is author of The Media in Israel, Center and Periphery, The Hidden Israel, Campaigns for Promoting and Marketing Cities in Israel, Behind Media Marginality: Coverage of Social Groups and Places in the Israeli Press, and Media Strategies for Marketing Places in Crisis: Improving the Image of Cities, Countries, and Tourist Destinations.