Those SodaStream Ads are Definitely Spreading.

If you're not familiar with it SodaStream is something of an odd product. You know those sodas and soft drinks you can buy from any neighbourhood store? Well Soda Stream will sell you a little machine, packets of syrup and canisters of carbon dioxide to make slightly worse versions of those same drinks in the comfort of your own home.

Obviously convincing people that they need this utterly redundant product in their lives requires an awful lot of advertising. So last year SodaStream brought very expensive advertising space in the Superbowl. In 2014 they've expanded their campaign to include sponsorship of the UK Channel 4 series "The Jump" although that seems like a mistake because nobody has been watching this apology to Big Brother that mixes elements of the reality show "Splash" with sports from the Winter Olympics. Seriously I think two of the show's celebrity participants have actually been killed but there was no-one there to notice. Therefore if anyone has been watching "The Jump" I feel the need to reassure them that the actual Winter Olympics won't be that boring.

Apart from the unfortunate sponsorship deal with Channel 4 SodaStream have again decided to run a Superbowl commercial and have gone about it in a big way hiring Hollywood movie star Scarlett Johansson. Even before the commercial has aired this has already created a storm of controversy with international development charity Oxfam encouraging Ms Johansson to stand down from her Ambassador role with them.

The reason why SodaStream is always a controversial brand is because it's main factory is located in Maale Adumin. This is a Jewish settlement on land in the West Bank that was seized from the Palestinians during the 1967 Arab-Israeli Six Day War. Settling civilians and their factories on land seized during war is a clear violation of all international law and convention on the subject. Therefore SodaStream have become a primary target for the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign that targets individuals and companies that are involved in the Israeli occupation of Palestinian lands in the hope of getting Israel to behave more reasonably towards the Palestinians. However over the last year or so SodaStream has become an important symbol within the Israel/Palestine conflict for two much more specific reasons;

As his careless and reckless policies have caused the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region to burn all the way from Libya to Afghanistan US President Obama's administration have become fixated on the Israel/Palestine peace process. It's almost as if Obama believes that by ending that conflict he can claim that he's "Brought Peace to the Middle-East" and no-one will notice that the carnage in Syria is continuing and spreading to neighbouring states like Iraq and Lebanon. In this almost Messianic quest Obama has been aided by the fact that decades of work by others means that there is now a greater desire for peace on both the Israeli and Palestinian sides then at probably any point before. For example while he is unable to admit it publicly Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is rumoured to be on the verge of removing all Jewish settlements from Palestinian territories within the next 10-15 years subject to certain land-swap deals. Fatah who've been designated to represent the Palestinians are also more then happy to see Jewish settlements removed from Palestinian territories but want to see it happen within a maximum of three years.

SodaStream also provides an interesting window on the Israel/Palestine conflict because while its location in occupied Palestine is completely illegal and unfair it actually employs a fair few Palestinians meaning that it is one of the rare occasions that Palestinians can enter Jewish settlements. Every day these Palestinians go to work alongside an almost equal number of Israeli Jews and nobody gets into any fights and nobody kills each other. That provides hope for a more utopian single state solution to the Israel/Palestine conflict in which Israeli Jews and Palestinian Arabs all live harmoniously together within a single state. Up until the early 2000's this was the solution that the Israeli hardliners favoured and often used as an excuse to avoid talking about the two state solution that is now considered the primary option. What changed these hardliners minds was that they realised that Palestinian Arabs were having far more babies then Israeli Jews meaning that if the two groups were to share a single state it would be a predominately Arab state and Israel would lose it's Jewish identity.

So I can't help but wonder if in signing up to do SodaStream's Superbowl commercial Scarlett Johansson was aware of the complicated discussion she was participating in or whether she simply saw a huge pile of cash.


13:20 on 2/2/14 (UK date).