CBNNews.com - JERUSALEM, Israel - A humorous Israeli TV commercial, touting the fuel efficiency of Renault-Nissan cars, has angered the Saudis.

The ad shows white-robed Saudi oil barons shouting at a fuel-efficient Renault-Nissan parked outside their hotel. One of them starts punching the car. As his companions restrain him, he curses at the car, saying "Hawks should peck at you day and night."

The ad ends with a voice-over: "It's clear the oil companies won't like you."

The Saudis were quick to react to the Israeli commercial.

"It's my opinion that Nissan made a huge error by igniting these [racist] instincts," Hani al-Wafa said on Saudi-run MBC TV in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. "We need to apply punishments…against these r[acist] things," al-Wafa said.

"In order for Nissan to keep its interests in the region, it must apologize," he said.

The car featured in the commercial is one of Renault-Nissan's new electric vehicles.

"It's a humorous campaign that was loved by both the Jewish and Arab worlds," Daniella Ribenbach, Nissan's spokeswoman in Israel, told The Jerusalem Post.

"If we have a sense of humor, I expect them to have one as well," said Hadar Goldman, co-owner of Zarmon Goldman ad agency.

Source: The Jerusalem Post