Artist Photobombs YouTube Videos for a Good Cause

The LGBT Israel Task Force (‘The Aguda’) joined forces with Google and a renowned Israeli composer and songwriter, Doron Medalie, in an attempt to troll YouTube viewers. But don’t you worry, no YouTubers were hurt during the campaign. BBR Saatchi & Saatchi stands behind the whole experience and thanks to its imagination, the creative agency succeeded to turn typical YouTube sessions into a series of mini-adventures that present the viewers with all the injustice the LGBTQ community has to face in Israel each day.

If you happen to listen to Medalie’s hits around these days, you’ll have to arm yourself with a huge amount of patience. Why is that? Because the artist decided to photobomb his own music videos, only for a good cause. You’ll have to wait about two and a half hours to actually listen to the singer’s songs, which you probably won’t find funny if you want to have some fun grooving to some good beats.

And this is definitely not a joke. It’s just Aguda’s unusual way of giving the LGBTQ community a voice!

The experience unfolds in “YouTube’s antechamber” and sees Medalie talking about LGBTQ’s rights with other leading music stars and celebrities in the country. Besides the artists, the singer can be spotted having a chat with various other people who empathize with their LGBTQ fellows: such as members of the parents of gay children organization ‘Tehila’, youngsters belonging to ‘IGY’ (The Israeli Gay Youth organization), and other activists who support the community’s rights.

The virtual waiting room actually appears as a pre-roll ad that activates itself when someone hits play on one of Medalie’s songs. Here, online guests are invited to follow the singer’s opinions and listen to what he and his visitors are talking about. Why members of the LGBTQ community cannot marry, adopt, or use surrogates to become parents are amongst the subjects the guests are invited to debate.

Medalie’s hits are played at many weddings in Israel. But because the artist identifies himself as a gay man, he can only enjoy a wedding as a guest, and not as a groom. Outraged by the injustice against the LGBTQ community, he decided to fight it using his own music, which he hopes will raise awareness about the issues faced by its members.

His ‘Aba’ (‘Dad’ in Hebrew) song actually represents a good opportunity to speak out about the fact that gay people are not allowed to adopt children in Israel. Another one of his hits, ‘Heaven,’ refers to Spain, which is a perfect place for gay people thanks to the fact that the country’s laws allow marriage between the same sex.

“Every time people look for one of the songs I’ve written or listen to a playlist that has one of my songs in it, a pre-roll will play and they’ll see me talking. Instead of skipping the ‘pre-roll ad’ viewers will be invited to listen. Because what we created is not an ad – but material designed to make them think, act and hopefully contribute to changing things by signing our petition,” the artist said in a press release.

The campaign is supported by an online portal where listeners can join the cause and help the LGBTQ members gain their dignity in Israel. Besides the website, the Tel Aviv-based agency created a one-minute-long video which you can check out below. So, are you ready to help out? Because we definitely are! Only that, we’ll do it by spreading the word online. Care to join us?