EGYPT'S top prosecutor is investigating whether a puppet that appears in a TV advertisement for Vodafone is delivering coded messages about terrorist bomb attacks.
At first glance, the puppet – an elderly widow called Abla Fahita – appears to be an unlikely terrorist. The ad, which shows her trying to find a SIM card used by her late husband, also seems rather innocuous.
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Fahita tells a friend that she has asked to use a sniffer dog at a shopping mall to help search for the missing SIM. She also discusses another character she calls Mama Touta.
Egyptian prosecutors were alerted to the ad's alleged subtext by a video-blogger and youth activist called Ahmed Spider. During an appearance on Egyptian TV, the 25-year-old claimed the mall and the dog were code words for the locations of bomb attacks. Mama Touta, said Spider, is a code word for the Muslim Brotherhood.
"These elements tell us that there will be a big mall and an explosion after a dog fails to find the bomb in a car," Spider said. Vodafone has denied the allegations.