Car ad with same-sex couple angers Israel’s Orthodox

Responding to a Nissan car commercial in Israel that uses same-sex couples to promote a new family model, a religious forum has launched a counter campaign on Facebook showing what it calls “a normal family.”

Nissan’s “Put your family in the Sentra” ads launched earlier this month feature two men embracing surrounded by their children and two women in a similar pose, and describe these families as normative. There are also print ads.

The television ad, in English with Hebrew subtitles, features a young girl asking “Who’s to say what a family is?” She suggests that families can have two mommies or two daddies, as long as they put the family in the center, a play on the word Sentra.

The Hotam Forum, comprised of religious research institutes in Israel, launched its campaign on Wednesday, The Times of Israel reported, posting an image of the ad with a stop sign covering it. Another photo shows a family with a mother, father and two children. A banner reads: “In our family car there is a mother and a father.”

“Hello Nissan, it looks like you are a little confused and need to recalculate your route,” the forum wrote in a post accompanying the image.

“There is only one kind of family: a mother, a father, with shared children. That’s what a normal family looks like. That’s what a Jewish family looks like … you can lie to yourself, but you can’t lie to reality,” the post continues.

Gay marriage is not legal in Israel, but same sex couples married abroad have been recognised as married for the past decade.