“It all started in Israel. When Carmen Tal’s hair became damaged after a color treatment, it turned out to be a blessing. A stylist at a hair salon in Tel Aviv saved Tal by treating her hair with argan oil. It was saved immediately.”
So describes The Jerusalem Post the origin story of Moroccanoil. Carmen Tal then lived in Montreal (Canada), where she ran her own hair salon. Together with her then husband Ofer Tal, she bought the Israeli company that sold the oil and renamed it ‘Moroccanoil Israel’.
The seeds of the argan tree — © Shutterstock
Lawsuits
The name of the oil is not that far-fetched: the argan tree only grows in southwestern Morocco, where women have been harvesting and pressing the seeds for centuries. But the choice did stir up controversy in Morocco. When the brand broke through internationally, the association of Moroccan oil producers asked the government to take legal action. Because argan oil is a protected product, comparable to champagne: sparkling wine can only be called that if it really comes from the Champagne region. Moroccanoil’s argan oil is said to be harvested in Morocco itself, but the products are ‘made in Israel’.
There was never a lawsuit with Morocco, because Moroccanoil existed before argan oil was geographically protected. But the company itself has already filed several complaints against companies that dared to use the word ‘Moroccan’. Against Aldi, for example, because there are blue bottles with ‘Moroccan Argan Oil’ on the shelves in Australian Aldi’s. Aldi counterattacked by filing a complaint against the fact that a purely descriptive name such as ‘Moroccanoil’ could be a registered trademark. In both cases, the complainants were wrong: ‘Moroccanoil’ remains registered, and Aldi can also continue to use ‘Moroccan Argan Oil’.
The orange M is also visible during interviews. — © AFP
Bad news, curly heads
The Canadian NGO CJPME, which fights for the Palestinian cause and provides tips on its website on how to boycott Israel, has Moroccanoil on its list. “Some of their products are made in Israel, but the company refuses to reveal whether they are made in occupied territories,” it said. A report on CNN mentioned a factory “two hours north of Jerusalem.”
It is all these elements that lead to a lot of resistance on the internet against the fact that an Israeli company is the main sponsor of the Eurovision Song Contest. “Bad news, curly heads: Moroccanoil is made in Israel “, it sounds, among other things. On many forums and social media channels, internet users are calling for a boycott of the brand. Some point to the origin of the main sponsor as the reason why Israel is allowed to participate in the song competition despite all the protests. The company itself is keeping out of the discussion.
Tags: sponsor Eurovision Song Contest fire
