The propagandistic and insincere nature of the ad is obvious to any who would care to disect it.
The whole video has warped and twisted context, the messages are not Islamic other than the chants, the Muslim is accused via implication for crimes and bombings commited by the secularists, and actually the makers have no right to show a woman in sexually appealing underclothes under the guise of a "marriage scene" something which would be considered unacceptable by Muslims and especially rejected in ramadan - the fact that ramadan is chosen indicates to me that zain is losing heavily on data revenue through video streaming.
These appear to be very old tactics with more polished and sophisticated mind hacks.
The US-funded al-Hurra TV news channel..... Al-Hurra has shown lengthy interviews with US politicians, including George Bush, but has run into problems with locally hired journalists. On one occasion it broadcast a call to arms against Israel by Hezbollah, which was not the plan when
the channel was launched across the Middle East in 2004 after the Iraq invasion.
Diplomats said they believed the allure of actors such as Eva Longoria, Jennifer Aniston and David Schwimmer meant commercial TV had a far greater impact than al-Hurra which, according to one report,
has cost US taxpayers up to $500m (£316m).
"It's still all about the war of ideas here, and the American programming on MBC and Rotana [a channel part-owned by Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation] is winning over ordinary Saudis in a way that al-Hurra and other US propaganda never could," two Saudi media executives told a US official in a meeting at a Jeddah branch of Starbucks. ...
.....
The diplomats told Washington that certain themes in American movies seemed to appeal to the Saudi audience: heroic honesty in the face of corruption (George Clooney in Michael Clayton), supportive behaviour in relationships (an unspecified drama that was repeated during an Eid holiday featuring an American husband dealing with a drunk wife who smashed cars and crockery when she wasn't assaulting him and their child), and respect for the law over self-interest (Al Pacino and Robin Williams in Insomnia).
In further evidence of the advance of US media in Saudi Arabia, the same cable revealed that one of Rupert Murdoch's sons held talks with the board of al-Eqtisadiah, a Saudi Arabian daily newspaper, about a deal to publish an Arabic version of the Wall Street Journal. The meeting was said to have been called at the behest of
Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, a billionaire businessman and shareholder in News Corporation. The 35% Bin Talal-owned SRMG media group, which owns al-Eqtisadiah, was also trying to win a contract to publish the International Herald Tribune uncensored in Saudi Arabia, the cable reveals.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/20...usewives-saudi
That channel, which was launched in 2004 after the Iraq invasion, has attempted to win over viewers with such programming
Daily mail
Alhurra
Type Satellite television network
Country United States (external consumption only)
Availability 22 countries and territories across the Middle East and North Africa (includes: Algeria, Bahrain, Djibouti, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco, Oman, Palestinian Territories, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, Tunisia, United Arab Emirates and Yemen)
Owner Middle East Broadcasting Networks
(Funded by the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG), which oversees all U.S. government-funded foreign broadcasts)
Launch date
14 February 2004
The fact that Alhurra is funded by the U.S. Congress through the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG) has led some critics to claim that the channel is "state propaganda" and presents its news with a pro-American bias.[30] Alhurra has openly tried to distinguish itself from the perceived anti-American tone of its competition. Executives in the channel's early days instructed broadcasters to avoid the use of "loaded" terms (such as "martyr," "resistance fighters," or "occupation forces") used frequently on networks such as al-Jazeera in reporting about the U.S. military operation in Iraq, opting for terms like "armed groups" and "U.S. and coalition forces."[6]
Alhurra is observed by Arab journalists as complying too scrupulously with embargoes on military information when Western media outlets frequently disregard these same requests. Steve Tatham, a British Royal Navy officer, recorded an instance in which a British officer briefed Arab and Western media that a humanitarian aid ship was being held back pending operations against Iraqi insurgents in the area. According to Tatham's account, when the officer asked the media to delay reporting this information for security reasons, Fox News disregarded the request whereas Alhurra complied.[31]
Mouafac Harb, Alhurra's first news director who resigned from the organization in 2006, claimed that he left in part because he
"sensed the Broadcasting Board of Governors wanted Alhurra to promote U.S. foreign policy instead of just reporting the news." Harb claimed that at Alhurra there had been a "tendency to please Washington and not the [Arab] audience."[12]
Its stated mission is to provide "objective, accurate and relevant news and information" to its audience while seeking to "support democratic values" and "expand the spectrum of ideas, opinions, and perspectives" available in the region's media.[1] The network has also tried to distinguish itself from its numerous regional competitors by providing access to more in-depth coverage of U.S. issues and policies and coverage of a broader range of opinions and perspectives than normally heard on other Arab television networks.[1]
Alhurra began broadcasting on 14 February 2004 to 22 countries across the Middle East and North Africa. It has established itself as the third highest-rated pan-Arab news channel, surpassing viewership ratings for the BBC (English and Arabic), France 24 Arabic, RTV Arabic, CCTV, CNNi, and Sky Arabia.[citation needed]
In April 2004, an additional channel called Alhurra-Iraq was launched, featuring most of the Alhurra content, with additional programming specifically directed at the Iraqi audience. It is also broadcast on satellite and is available on terrestrial antennas throughout Iraq, including in Basra, and Baghdad. Alhurra-Iraq consistently achieves higher ratings in Iraq than both Al Jazeera and Al Arabiya.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alhurra
Kingdom Holding Co, controlled by Saudi billionaire Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, offered to acquire Mobile Telecommunications Co’s 25 percent stake in Zain Saudi Arabia, which is worth about SR2.6bn ($690m) at the current share price.
The sale of the Saudi unit would ease the purchase of a majority stake in Mobile Telecommunications, or Zain as Kuwait’s biggest phone company is known, by Emirates Telecommunications Corp., known as Etisalat. Based on the 1.4 billion outstanding Zain Saudi shares and a current share price of 7.35 riyals, the 25 percent stake is valued at about 2.6 billion riyals. Kingdom Holding’s expression of interest is valid until 5 p.m. in Riyadh on Feb. 6, the company said in a statement to the Saudi bourse.
http://m.arabianbusiness.com/kingdom...ke-377504.html
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia (AP) — Mobile phone service provider Zain Saudi says it has signed a nonbinding term sheet for the sale of a $950 million, 25 percent stake, in the company to Bahrain's Batelco Group and the investment firm headed by Saudi billionaire Prince Alwaleed bin Talal.
http://m.newsok.com/article/feed/277870