"The Kasher committee's report authorizes subliminal advertising on television, which is forbidden by law, but calls it 'marketing content,'" says scriptwriter Yossi Madmony, a member of the committee. "Marketing content is defined in the report as content that integrates naturally into the program, that is, disguised content. You cannot turn something prohibited into something kosher merely by changing its name."

Last week, the committee, charged with setting rules for marketing content on commercial channels, submitted its report to the Second Authority for Television and Radio. It was headed by Professor Asa Kasher, and its other nine members included three senior advertising officials. The committee recommended letting marketing content appear in telenovelas, reality shows, entertainment shows and light talk shows like "Odetta." However, the committee also recommended prohibiting advertising content on news broadcasts, investigative programs, documentaries, and consumer and children's programs. Two committee members who represented the artists' organizations, Professor Yossi Yonah and Madmony, disagreed with the others, whom they said took too permissive a stance. The two refused to sign the report.

"This report will lead to a catastrophe in creativity," Madmony tells Haaretz. "It's true that the report prohibits marketing content in high-end works, but advertising firms will henceforth start initiating television programs. The committee's basic assumption was, 'There is marketing content in any case, and everyone shuts their eyes, so let's at least make order.' But anchoring the matter in law is crossing a red line. If until now the scriptwriter wrote and the producer dug up a few sponsors, from now on things will be reversed, and the advertising firms will dig us up."

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The report states a commercial body may not influence the overall perception of a program it funds. I understand you are quite skeptical about this.

"This is purely declarative. Money talks. I've already taken part in programs that were partially funded, legitimately, by an official body like the Council for Road Safety, and I say with certainty that the moment someone invests big money, he does whatever he likes with the program. If the scriptwriter doesn't agree, the producer replaces him. The report encourages yes-men. Why work with Yossi Madmony, who makes problems for advertisers, and not with some guy who understands which side the bread is buttered on?"

The Kasher committee has determined that viewers will be informed before and during programs that include marketing content. Madmony thinks this is ridiculous: "The thought that a passive viewer would guard himself because of an announcement that flashes for a few seconds - which he maybe missed while channel surfing - is absurd. This reminds me of Jackie's 'Weekly Drawing for the Child' in [Yedioth Ahronoth's magazine] Seven Days, where every week there's some hidden character the children need to find. It would be like saying, 'Dear Sir, this program contains advertising content, but you have to find it yourself.' But all I want is to watch TV and clear my head, not to find Jackie's character. Furthermore, I need to find four characters, because the report would allow commercial cooperation with four organizations each program."

The committee's prohibition on advertising content in children's programming also looks hollow to Madmony. "The telenovelas in this country are aimed mainly at children and adolescents, and this is evidenced by the associated products," he says. "One eye is winking at the other. On the one hand the committee has prohibited exposing children to marketing content, but on the other it has permitted advertising in programs watched mostly by young people. I think the economic factor is less important than the children's good, but the committee believes this is not the case."

Foot in the door

Madmony's refusal to sign the Kasher committee report is a hard blow for Second Authority chair Nurit Dabush. After prolonged urging by the artists associations, she agreed to bring the respected screenwriter onto the committee (who has worked on the series "Bat Yam-New York" and the movie "Melanoma, My Love") in the hope that he would give marketing content an artistic seal of approval. But Madmony did not intend to serve as a fig leaf. "I am very angry at the council, which initially leaked that I was supporting the report. I think a public body that has asked for a professional opinion should be proud when disagreements on matters of substance arise, and not try to cover them."

In light of the advertising industry's considerable representation on the committee, wasn't the outcome a foregone conclusion?

"I am not doubting anyone's integrity, but it seems very strange to me that a committee that was supposed to supervise a matter included a significant number of those under supervision. It would have been more logical and more ethical had those people been invited to appear before the committee, given there is a clear economic interest."

Do you feel the committee has rewarded the broadcasting organizations - which in any case violate the law on marketing content - instead of chastising them?

"In my opinion, the committee did not devote enough attention to increasing enforcement, and the franchisees are undoubtedly proving that slow but steady land grabs work. You get one foot in the door, and in the end you stride into the room with full permission. After all, we heard in the committee that in any case marketing content is already being broadcast, so who will ensure the new rules won't be trampled as well?

"Artists have always had a patron," says Madmony. "During the Renaissance it was the Church, then the nobility and later the state. The new patron, the advertiser, is the worst possible. This isn't a nobleman who keeps an artist for the status; or the state, which nevertheless has some cultural interest. The advertiser has one and only one interest - to sell as much as possible.

"The modern advertiser wants us to think he also produces content. So Coca-Cola broadcasts youth, and hummus broadcasts the average man, but these are instant contents. Marketing content is grotesque. In the end, we will find ourselves with television programs suited to an advertising worldview. The screen will be beautified, and there will be no more room for true and painful contents."

Asa Kasher disagrees with Madmony's statement that the content the committee has approved is tantamount to subliminal advertising. In his response to Madmony's minority position, Kasher states: "Practical proposals Madmony raised during the discussion for regularizing marketing content are included in the committee report. The committee did not accept the proposal for a sweeping prohibition of marketing content in the genre of fiction."

Nurit Dabush sent the following response: "Apart from Madmony's appointment as a member of the committee, there has been no interaction between him and any of the council members regarding the report."