jews putting up billboards across America as part of 50-state media push

[yankeedoodle]

Why these Jewish organizations are investing in billboards to fight antisemitism
Organizations that put the billboards up say they have the potential to reach people across demographics.
https://ejewishphilanthropy.com/why-these-jewish-organizations-are-investing-in-billboards-to-get-their-message-out/

EXCERPT

The average billboard in the United States is 14 feet high and 48 feet wide and provides a message or advertisement with 672 square feet of space. Now, with antisemitism at historic levels in the country, the use of billboards to share Jewish messages — independent of the algorithmic targeting that has come to characterize social media advertising — is increasing. Organizations that put them up say the billboards have the potential to reach people across demographics in the fight against antisemitism.

In December, billboards were part of the Shine A Light campaign's 50-state media push to promote messages of tolerance and awareness of antisemitism. That same month, after some local antisemitic vandalism, the Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles and Outfront Media put up billboards featuring Jewish sayings, with the intent of countering the hate. The federation billboards' messages include, "A little bit of light dispels a lot of darkness," "The highest form of wisdom is kindness" and "Only a life lived for others is a life worthwhile."

On Jan. 18, the CAA campaign went up. And pink billboards erected by a group called JewBelong, featuring quippy messages such as, "Can a billboard end antisemitism? No. But you're not a billboard," continue to pop up, currently appearing in 22 cities across the country.

"Billboards are awareness and awareness starts conversations," said JewBelong co-founder Archie Gottesman. "Antisemitism is a difficult, unpleasant subject that needs to be spoken about."

Billboards are most efficient, she added, because the electronic information people consume is usually siloed — with most media consumers only engaging with messaging they find agreeable. But outdoor advertising is an exception.

"Everyone is commuting to work or in a car moving from one place to another and will see outdoor advertising," she said. "It's better to spread a very wide net to talk about antisemitism." 


A billboard put up by the Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles (Courtesy of the L.A. federation)
The Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting and Analysis (CAMERA), a pro-Israel media watchdog, has been using billboards for at least 15 years, a spokesperson for the organization, who asked to be anonymous, told eJP in an email.

"Print and online news media have become increasingly partisan, serving particular groups of people," wrote the CAMERA spokesperson, who asked to remain anonymous. "One of the chief advantages of billboards is that they're seen by people outside any given echo chamber. They can reach viewers on the street who might not otherwise see your message. Billboards exist in the public square in a way that other forms of advertising do not."   

A paid billboard campaign can come at a high price, with its cost depending on its location, size and the duration of its appearance; in some cases, a donor may underwrite the project or an outdoor media company may discount or donate space or services.

CAMERA said its billboards run from $1,000 to more than $10,000 per month; JewBelong's range from $2,000 to more than $80,000 — the cost for a tall billboard in New York City's Times Square — Gottesman said, calling that range "the far, far different edges of the spectrum of price for one billboard."

She added that JewBelong campaigns are usually made up of more than one billboard and the organization likes to run about four billboards at the same time. "Because of all of the variables it is difficult to pin down the cost of campaigns." She said roughly $25,000 would cover "a very good one-month, four-billboard campaign in most parts of the country," aside from large cities like New York City, Los Angeles or Chicago.

Funding for CAMERA's billboards generally is donated by the group's broad donor base throughout the United States, its spokesperson said. But a billboard's funding sometimes comes from a group of particular funders or is underwritten by one or two donors.

At other times, CAMERA has used its own budget to run billboard campaigns. "Once you shoulder the cost to do one billboard, you often find that more people start coming forward to help you fund others," the spokesperson told eJP.

The length of a billboard campaign varies, depending on budget, market and availability, but rates are usually per month, several of the organizations said: One CAMERA billboard was up for six months, its spokesperson said; Rob Goldenberg, chief creative officer of the L.A. federation, said the federation billboards will run in perpetuity (although the locations of the billboards may change depending on geographical demand). Gottesman said JewBelong's campaign in Atlanta will run for 18 months.

The billboard spaces for the federation and CAA were secured by partnering with outdoor media companies. Outfront Media offered the federation a $200-per-board rate, the federation said, so the 10 boards it ordered cost a total of $2,000 to print. The media company also offered location options and said it would be responsible for putting up and taking down the billboards, Goldenberg told eJP.

[...]

One of the challenges that billboards present is the lack of a sound way to measure engagement. With no metadata or hyperlinks, metrics are murky, and organizations have to rely on feedback from their constituents, from people who respond to the board by visiting the organization's website or send email inquiries to tracking social media mentions and reposts as much as possible.

CAMERA's billboard outside the New York Times headquarters, which was up in summer of 2021 for several months and addressed the paper's publisher, A. G. Sulzberger, read "Hey, Mr. Sulzberger, The New York Times apologized for burying news about Nazi antisemitism. Why are you burying the full truth about attacks on Jews today? Get back to us at CAMERA.ORG."

It was seen by roughly 100,000 people per day because of its location, the CAMERA spokesperson estimated. The spokesperson added that it also helped the group when New York Times journalists tweeted about CAMERA billboards, for example, or if national news outlets expressed interest in the story behind the billboard.

Gottesman said that another measure of impact is when people write to JewBelong, inviting the group to bring its billboards to their state, town or university. People also post online or email with comments approving of the messages or condemning antisemitism.

"Because I think it's dangerous to be too scared to talk about antisemitism, we have to be talking about it," she said, "You have to be comfortable knowing you won't know all the impact."

JewBelong is most interested in talking to non-Jews, Gottesman said. At the University of California, Berkeley — where a coalition of student groups in the law school recently committed to barring Zionist speakers — a local JewBelong billboard campaign declares that "anti-Zionism is antisemitism" and has sparked debate at the school. The Berkeley campaign also points to a potential danger associated with large, public campaigns: Two of the billboards were defaced with the slogan "Free Palestine."

"Our country is having very important conversations about diversity," she said in an interview before the controversy over the Berkeley campaign, naming movements such as Black Lives Matter and Stop Asian Hate, and those centered on securing transgender rights. "There's lots of marginalized groups that are being spoken about, which is good. Antisemitism just needs to get into that conversation. Too often, we're kept out of it."

Gottesman clarified that the JewBelong billboards don't target those engaging in antisemitic activity themselves, but the "mushy middle — people who can be swayed or start or be in conversations because of an awareness campaign."

The JewBelong creative process involves testing messages on social media before they are launched as billboards. In some communities those messages get geographically specific; in Atlanta, for example, the state's 50-year-old marketing slogan is "Atlanta is too busy to hate." But after several local schools were defaced with antisemitic graffiti, JewBelong put up a billboard: "If Atlanta is too busy to hate, why is there a swastika at my kid's school?"

Goldenberg said that the wording for the federation billboards was selected to be general, simple and resonant across all segments of Los Angeles' diverse Jewish community, and evergreen enough to be relevant in the future.

"What message is more simple, and more for all than love? Love is clear. Love is what everybody wants. You look at a billboard, and you see a hamburger up there, and you're like, 'I want that.' I would love for someone to look up at this billboard that's promoting love, unity and for our community to get together [and] to say, 'I want that,'" Goldenberg said.

Goldenberg said the L.A. federation is having an internal conversation about next steps, trying to keep the essence of the billboards "in their purest form" while spreading their message.

"People don't really read newspapers, Instagram feeds are not really reaching everyone, even all your followers. I don't think my kid has watched a commercial on TV in their lifetime," said Goldenberg. "We're reaching everyone. We're reaching all of Los Angeles."

See also these recent TiU posts:

No end date to jewish billboard propaganda in Los Angeles
http://theinfounderground.com/smf/index.php?topic=30442.msg98114#msg98114

Billboards ordering Brits to "Stand with jews" go up all across Britain
http://theinfounderground.com/smf/index.php?topic=30487.msg98179#msg98179

[abduLMaria]

The Ego-driven Madness of the Jews, makes it hard to see that programs like this can Backfire-massively.