THE NEW
SALSA
AP PHOTO/TARA TODRAS-WHITEHILL
protesters in Philadelphia who
were part of the movement caught
the attention of student activists
at Princeton and DePaul universities in 2010. They tried to persuade
their schools’ dining services to
stop offering Sabra. Although they
didn’t succeed, activists in the
movement are still trying to garner
support for their anti-Sabra efforts.
Still, Zohar does not seem particularly distressed by the potential implications for Sabra’s sales.
“The protesters make noise, but
they make noise to themselves,”
he said. “It doesn’t have any influence on our business.”
HUFFINGTON
06.30-07.07.13
THE HUMMUS RELIGION
As the protests played out in the
margins, Sabra aimed its product
at the American mainstream. It
deployed volunteers in trucks to
hand out free samples of hummus
in cities around the country, and
expanded its product line to include more familiar dips, including guacamole and salsa.
It launched a national television ad campaign, exhorting people to “taste the Mediterranean,”
and moved its staff in 2011 from
an old industrial building across
the street from a Queens cemetery
to a sleek suburban office park,
A pair of
Israeli men
eat hummus
during lunch at
a restaurant in
Jerusalem.