Can Super Bowl ads reduce antisemitism and increase pro-Israeli sentiment?

Apparently yes.   

The facts and the odds were stacked against them.  

Israel has a brand problem.  

The Heart Monitors found that a full 1 in 3 (33%) of Gen Pop and 31% of Gen Z believe Israel’s control of West Bank and Gaza is apartheid 25 % of Gen Z believes that BOTH  the IDF and HAMAS are terrorist organizations. 

And that Antisemitism in our country  is far worse than most of us even realize, especially with Gen Z:   

21% of Gen Z don’t agree that hatred against the Jewish people, discrimination against Jewish individuals.  

Worse for more than 1/3% of Gen Z , calling for the end of Israel, denying the Holocaust is not antisemitism. A full 77 percent of Gen Pop and Gen Z  do not see boycotting Jewish establishments  and protesting are not manifestations of antisemitism either. They have to do with Israel, not the Jewish people.  

So, the Israeli Government and Robert Kraft’s Foundation to Combat Anti Semitism took to the airwaves trying to change the way people feel about their respective brands fighting a collective battle for hearts and minds.  

The Heart Monitors has been looking at the feelings behind the facts in the Hamas/Israel conflict with quick quant and qual pulsing fielding over 300 studies among the Gen Pop, Gen Z, Gen Z Jews, And Gen Z Muslims since January 1st. We took a quick  look at how the General population and Gen Z  felt after viewing the two Robert Kraft ads:  Tony-the  touching scene of a Good Samaritan whitewashing anti semitic  messaging from his neighbor’s garage door and the much awaited  “Jones” spot which ran on the big game references MLK and his fight for equal rights among all people, including Jews   and the two hostage related ads produced by the Israeli government (dads) and (empty seat). We asked people to assess them  across 12 feelings, describe why they had those feelings and how these feelings would change their behavior or opinion.  

While there were a small number of people that cited some numbness or indifferent to the situation, the top four feelings cited were sympathy, inspired, sad and shocked a distant fifth,  resonating  in different degrees, among the General Population and Gen Z. .  

Sympathy  

“Dads” won the sympathy award hands down with the General Public which is consistent with our tracking of the power of the “bring them home now” message and campaign with both gen pop and gen Z.  For most , this war is about all people being the losers, the victims regardless of side. Everyone has a dad , so the spot made the hostage situation relevant to a broader group other than Jews .  It personalized the hostage crisis making the victims relatable vs statistics.   

Gen Z as we know has a contrarian view of the war and much more staunchly anti-Israel. For them, “Tony” evoked the highest sympathy rating among all ads likely because it spoke more broadly about hate and involved everyday people, neighbors supporting each other even though they are different and people reacting to the protection of the little girl from seeing hate. It evokes the idea of harmony that is certainly an aspiration for some.  

Sadness  

“Empty Seat” was the most sad for Gen Pop, but evoking equal levels of sympathy.. This is not surprising as the message was a missing family member or special person, not simply a dad which is highly relatable to gen Z.  

Inspiration 

The Jones ad hands down wins for most inspiring for both Gen Z and Gen Pop with 70 percent agreeing prior to the super bowl that evoking MLK made sense in relation to antisemitism. Not surprisingly, It was more inspiring to the general population as Gen Z does view history as somewhat irrelevant and doesn’t understand the connection of  MLK Jr to the Jewish community.  It seems to have struck just the right chord between sympathy and inspiration.  

For us, The Chiefs were not the only winners of the superbowl.  Both Kraft and  the Israeli Government were.   

All of the Kraft ads produced significant ( 70% +) scores for the question of if the ad would increase your chances of standing up to Jewish hate, with Tony edging out all four  (which ironically did not air over superbowl weekend). And that’s ths the most important statistic .  

As for the question of whether Israel shifted sentiment that their actions in Gaza were justified due to hostages, we asked the same question in January.  We found that there were modest improvements, but important improvements made among the General Population (59% up from 55% for stadium, and 3 percent lift for dads). The HUGE news is that there was a big bump and improvement among Gen Z off a smaller agreement of 38% that the actions were justified in January to over 44 percent for each ad.  

Now what?  

How can the Israeli Brand and the Jewish Brand co-exist to symbiotically improve their respective images?  

What is the right combination of feelings for which audience to inspire action?  

Will this be the spark that Gen Z needs to be more open minded? Did we connect with the right feelings to inspire action?  

Is this initiative the catalyst for change the Jewish world needs? It’s going in the right direction but this is a long term war and these are short term gains. 

To do this, we believe the Jewish World needs to apply a coordinated,  concerted  and united approach  if they are to win the war for hearts and minds, especially with Gen Z focusing on the feelings behind the facts. Facts alone won’t win the propaganda war, we need to connect to the right feelings,  with the right audiences  at the right times, to change behaviors. Most of all, they need to unite to have better coordinated efforts and ultimately one voice.  

Robin Lemberg Jon Bond  

Co-founder Co-founder  

The Heart Monitors™ is a new type of strategy consultancy that exposes the feelings behind the facts™ that offer deep insights and drive behavior change. Made up of passionate leaders from the worlds of marketing, finance, non-profits, research and social science, bring a proprietary research tech stack, custom communities, daring questions, quick and timely reads and with products and services such as the “F Factor” and the “Gen Z Heart Tracker”, we empower non-profits, brands and their partners with powerful audience insights around messages, campaigns, topical and polarizing issues in order to craft a story that resonates, drives behavior and influences change. For more information, visit theheartmonitors.com