Scarlett Johansson and SodaStream: This is Controversial?

delivered February 7, 2014

Scarlett Johansson starred in a commercial for SodaStream during last week’s Super Bowl.  

Normally being paid to be a spokesperson for a company is not controversial--unless the company happens to be SodaStream, located in the Mishor Adumim industrial park located fifteen minutes from central Jerusalem next to one of the largest settlement blocs Ma’aleh Adumim.  

This is an area that is likely to be incorporated into Israel into any future deal for a two-state solution.

Johansson, Jewish, 29, a celebrity, was featured in the commercial that was both pro-environment, pro-health (e.g. soda without high fructose corn syrup and reusable bottles), and a not-so-subtle slap at Pepsi and Coca Cola, the behemoths of the carbonated beverage world.

Fox made SodaStream cut the remark about Pepsi and Coke given the massive amounts of revenue derived from those companies advertising during NFL games throughout the year.  Still, that part of the controversy was subsumed by the bigger one about the plant’s location.

The controversy behind the commercial is about

• the physical location of this plant, in an area that was once home to multiple Palestinian villages;

• its central geography which could impact having a Palestinian state with contiguous borders;

• and the overall sense in the overheated debate over this land that Ms. Johansson,

• the former celebrity ambassador for Oxfam, should have turned down the offer to be SodaStream’s first celebrity spokesperson.

On the other hand, the current owners of SodaStream are not the original owners.  They bought the company with the plant already existing at Mishor Adumim.  

As an employer, the company employs hundreds of Palestinian workers from surrounding communities.  

The Forward notes that “Some 250 Palestinians applauded SodaStream CEO Daniel Birnbaum loudly when he gave a speech on the plant floor urging them to ignore the political attacks on the facility.  

The CEO reassured the workers about the jobs and said he wanted to bring ‘more and more hands’ into the factory as SodaStream grows. ‘We are making history for the Palestinian people and the Israeli people.’”  

The article goes on to note that because of the company’s growth, it now employs 500 Palestinians out of some 1,300 workers, up from 160 Palestinians in December 2010.

Herein is the crux of the issue:  a successful company, that is employing hundreds of Palestinians, is located on disputed land.  

The company itself is expanding, including a new facility in the Negev, which is a part of Israel that is undisputed by the international community.

What is undisputed is that the company built this facility in a national priority area that offers government tax breaks, just as the facility under development in the Negev is also located in a national priority area, eligible for tax incentives.  This is similar to what our own state governments do to draw manufacturing to their states.  Alabama, Tennessee, South Carolina, the list goes on and on.

SodaStream’s CEO Daniel Birnbaum notes that the company does business in 40 countries worldwide and said, “If a Palestinian state comes into being, as is the aim of current US-brokered talks between Israel and the Palestinian Authority, SodaStream will also be happy to stay and pay its taxes to the new Palestinian state.”

And what about the commercial?  It is in English, it ran during the Super Bowl, and it featured an American celebrity.  It was clearly developed with an audience in mind:  the American soda consuming public.

Irrespective where SodaStream is manufactured, or the politics involved, many of us today have SodaStream products in our homes, just like the Keurig K-Cup machines.  They are convenient, inexpensive to use, and cut down on cans and bottles.

One can only hope that this commercial will lead to increased sales for SodaStream in our country.  And no matter what Scarlett Johansson was paid to be the celebrity spokesperson, her willingness to do so should be applauded because as she strengthens SodaStream’s sales, she strengthens the economic underpinnings that will drive the path toward resolution of entrenched enmity between peoples who have much more in common and who will benefit mightily when propaganda is replaced with cooperation.