Some Middle Eastern TV networks have begun airing a TV ad aimed at discouraging terrorism by showing the anatomy of a suicide bombing. The $1 million ad is loaded with special effects, including the
time-suspension technique of the "Matrix" movies to show bodies, cars and broken glass flying in slow motion through the air. The quality, and the secrecy surrounding its creators and backers, have
some thinking the U.S. government is behind it--but the Feds refuse to say whether they were involved in the spot, which began airing this summer on Al-Arabiya, Lebanese Broadcasting Corp. and several
Iraqi channels as violence was raging in Baghdad and between Hezbollah and Israel. Taglined "Terrorism has no religion," there are doubts about how much impact it may have. "When this kind of
advertisement is sandwiched between footage of Lebanon and Iraq, it's going to fall on deaf ears," says Lawrence Pintak, the director of the Adham Center for Electronic Journalism at the American
University in Cairo.
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