Israel spent $7M on a Super Bowl ad. Did it work to change American public opinion? (2024)

This Sunday, the Israeli government ran three ads that called for support for hostages held by Hamas during the most watched U.S. television event of the year. The ads were aired amid growing national criticism of Israel’s bombing campaign in Palestine which has lasted 131 days and killed more than 28,000 people.

The 30-second ads ran during the game between the San Francisco 49ers and the Kansas City Chiefs, which was streamed on Paramount+ by approximately 115 million Americans last Sunday.

The first was called Bring All Dads Back Home, and portrayed fathers throwing the ball with their kids before shifting to images of hostages. The second was titled “136 Seats Are Still Available for Sunday’s Game” and showed empty seats in a stadium, representing the 136 Israeli hostages still believed to be held by Hamas. The last was titled “In a roaring stadium, their silence is deafening,” showing a football stadium filled with fans with some seats empty.

Groups who oppose Israel’s bombardment of Palestine say that the ads are an example of how propaganda is used to justify a genocide.

The Israeli Prime Minister’s National Public Diplomacy Directorate, which acts as a press office for the Israeli government, bought the Super Bowl ad space through Paramount. According to pricing reported by Vivvix Ad Intelligence, Israel likely paid about $7 million for each 30-second clip.

Israel’s PR war

Clark University Political science scholar Robert Boatright says that the ad campaign shows the ways that the Israeli government is keenly aware of the importance of American public opinion in it’s war effort. The ads comes at a time when U.S. public support for Israel has waned considerably as the death toll in Gaza surges.

In November, 40% of Americans said Israel has gone “too far” in its campaign in Gaza. Now, half of all Americans say the same, according to data from AP-NORC.

“It seems Israel has a legit perception that it needs to do a PR campaign in America,” Boatright said. “They know there’s conflict in the U.S. over what we should be doing in terms of Israel and Palestine.”

Israel’s attempt to win over U.S. public opinion has been expansive. Israeli Defense Forces have used social media to post shocking videos, while also highlighting the service of LGBTQ soldiers and women in attempts to appeal to a national and international audience.

Political consequences

As the 2024 election season begins, polls indicate that the growing discontent of the American public around Pres. Joe Biden’s continued support of Israel may have political consequences.

“If I had any idea of voting for Joe Biden, I certainly will not be doing so now,” said Aldair Labrada, a Cuban American voter told Prism in November.

“Not only because his administration has proven to be against any form of ceasefire, but because he said that we cannot be sure that this many [Palestinians] have died. And honestly that’s just very saddening to me because it normalizes what is going on.”

Despite this overwhelming opposition, the senate recently voted to pass a foreign aid package that includes $14 billion in military assistance to Israel.

According to Boatright, the success of political ads meant to shift public opinion is measured by whether or not people remembered them. When he asked his college students if they remembered the ad from the game, most of them said they did.

“So on those grounds, I’d say it was a successful ad. My students think about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict a lot, so they are sort of primed to notice when something unusual is said about it, or when it pops up somewhere they weren’t expecting it to,” Boatright told Reckon.

Criticism of the ad and the “Stop Jewish Hate” ads paid for by a foundation owned by billionaire owner of the New England Patriots Robert Kraft came from both pro-Israel and pro-Palestine viewers who aired their grievances online.

Some users criticized the “136 seats” ad with their edits of the ad featuring Palestinian fathers who endured Israeli attacks like this remake posted by X user Propaganda and Co.

Many online critics also pointed out that while the Super Bowl ad aired, Israel began a bombing campaign of Gaza’s southern city of Rafah, the last safe zone in the region where 1.2 million Palestinians have fled after the Israeli Defense Forces instructed them to move there.

Holding power to account

Activists are waging complaints with the Federal Communications Commission in what they claim is an instance of the commission breaking it’s own rules around political advertising. According to Abed A. Ayoub, the Executive Director of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, more than 10,000 complaints being filed about the ads as of Wednesday pointing out that the FCC did not disclose that the programming was paid for by a foreign government.

“CBS violated FCC rules by not making proper disclosures to the viewers across all platforms. This not only undermines the integrity of broadcasting standards but also misleads the public by not providing necessary context about the ad’s origins,” Ayoub said on X.

He and other activists want to “hold CBS and the NFL accountable” for not clearly disclosing the ad’s sponsor.

“The American public has a right to know and be informed about the influence of foreign governments in our media, and this includes Israel,” Ayoub said in the post on X.

The ADC has set up a call to action on its website where people can complain directly to the FCC. The FCC has not yet responded to complaints about the ads as of Wednesday afternoon.