Jonathan Gabay on Political Spin

Jonathan Gabay's new book, Soultraders, was featured in this week's JC. Here's a brief extract:

Marketing expert Jonathan Gabay on how our failure to understand propaganda is handing power to extremists

When it comes to political spin, the Israelis have a lot to learn from the Palestinians.

This is the view of marketing expert Jonathan Gabay, who has spent 30 years in advertising and whose new book, Soul Traders, looks at the impact of propaganda on popular culture.

The trouble with Israel’s approach, he says, is that it has not mastered the crucial art of putting across a simple, emotive message. By sending out images of bloodied bomb victims and wailing children to the world’s media, “the Palestinians give a very strong message in a powerful way that gets into the news. Israel gives the complex view. For the intelligentsia it’s great, but who the hell has got the time?”