Time to run: An ad with Noa Kirel raises awareness of the hostages’ plight

Nothing could be more alluring to young social-media users around the world than a beautifully photographed running-shoe ad featuring international pop star Noa Kirel – only this newly released commercial with Kirel quickly shifts gears, showing her running for her life from terrorists and ending with the words:  “October 7. Put yourself in our shoes. 115 lives depend on your support.”

The Instagram account where this video is posted includes a link to a website, https://www.timetorunow.com/ which features questions and answers about the 115 hostages held in Gaza by Hamas since October 7 and other aspects of the war.  The video is also available on TikTok, YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, and Linkedin. In the week since it was released, it has racked up more than five million views.

The ad for “Time’s Shoes,” starts with Kirel waking up and starting her day on an exercise bike, with a narrator intoning, “This is Time. Time doesn’t stop. Time doesn’t wait to kick start the day. Time is always running out. Yet you cannot rush Time. And when it’s time to go running, you have to choose wisely.” It looks like a typical athletic-shoe wellness-oriented ad, as Kirel is shown running through a beautiful landscape in new white shoes, labeled “Time’s Shoes,” when shots and screams are heard, and the words, “Time to Run” are superimposed over her face.

A crowd of young people, looking much like the Nova Festival concertgoers, join her and they all flee as fast as they can, as the shooting gets louder. The words, “When you’re running from terrorists, choose Time’s Shoes, or your time is up.”

The ad is a civilian initiative created by Lila Yedidia, a director and screenwriter, who conceived it as a way to influence young people abroad who know little about the war and the Middle East. “I know how to tell a story on video and I know how to write. I noticed that the world does not care about our pain [since October 7] and I felt I need to tell our story for people abroad.”

She received a grant from the Diaspora Affairs Ministry “at the beginning of the journey,” and emphasized that most of those who worked on the video did so with no financial compensation, or at a large discount from their usual fees, among them Kirel, who was not paid at all. “She’s a very busy person but she made time to do this,” said Yedidia. “We were lucky to have her as an advocate. She did it with a full heart.”

Yedidia also wanted to thank supporters of Israel abroad who helped, including such high-profile names as Nathaniel Buzolic, Montana Tucker, and James Maslow.

Inspiration for the ad

She said that one of her inspirations for making the ad was a survivor of the Nova massacre – where more than 360 were killed by terrorists and about 40 were taken hostage – who said that she thought that her decision to take a moment and put on her running shoes might have saved her life.

Yedidia said she felt it was important to make the ad for “people in the gray area… We tend to feel that everyone hates us, but not everyone is so extreme. Some people don’t care because they don’t know.”

It’s important to tell the story of October 7 in a way that will appeal to young people and inspire them to ask questions, she said, noting that, “The other side does it so well. They tell their story and lie to cover up their terrorist actions.”

She added, “Many people just don’t know what it’s like here.” She spoke about the ads by MDA, the Israeli emergency medical service, that began running on Israeli television in the immediate aftermath of the massacre, featuring actress Miri Bohadana showing people how to stop bleeding and make a tourniquet at home. Quite a few people who survived the massacre did so because they managed to make their own tourniquets after they were shot by terrorists or injured in other ways. The ads stopped running a few months ago, but now that the country is under threat of a second Iranian missile attack, they have returned to the airwaves.

“This is our reality,” she said. “Instead watching a commercial about a nice, cute product, we’re learning how to make a tourniquet.”

She hopes the video she made continues to be shared on social media and will help raise awareness of the plight of the hostages and to get people abroad to identify with their suffering. “Commercials get to your emotions to get you to buy something. I made this ad to make a point – it’s time to get the hostages home. People will identify with Noa. When she runs, she looks happy, things look amazing, and then there’s a terror attack. It can happen anywhere. The world will not see it coming, but it will still come. I want people to understand that.”