The NFL and its primary broadcaster for the Super Bowl, CBS, are under scrutiny after screening a sponsored ad by the Jewish state. The 30-second ad, titled “Bring All Dads Back Home”, was apparently aimed at raising awareness about the Israeli hostages taken captive by Hamas in October last year. As per recent reports, this ad drew the ire of 10,000 people.
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On Sunday, the ad aired, in which a narrator talked about the importance of fathers, overlayed on the home videos of the fathers taken hostage during the deadly attacks last year. “To all the dads held in captivity by Hamas for over 120 days: we vow to bring you home,” the narrator says, as more clips from home movies play. At the end of the clip, the hashtag “BRING ALL DADS BACK HOME” could be read across the screen.
According to Abed Ayoub, the national executive director of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, 10,000 people filed a complaint “directly with the FCC over the ads paid for by the Israeli government aired during the Super Bowl broadcast.” The FCC is the Federal Communications Commission of the USA that regulates communications by radio, television, wire, satellite, and cable across the United States.
The unrest seems to be over the fact that “CBS violated FCC rules by not making proper disclosures (about the ad) to the viewers across all platforms.” Ayoub further wrote, “This not only undermines the integrity of broadcasting standards but also misleads the public by not providing necessary context about the ad’s origins.”
The tweet by Ayoub received its own share of flak, with one David G. Greenfield saying, “You filed a complaint because there was an ad that pointed out that innocent civilians, including Americans, are being held hostage in Gaza?“
Israel’s Media Campaign for Hostages
Coinciding with the Super Bowl, the Israeli Govt launched an awareness campaign for the hostages being held in Gaza. The Super Bowl Ad, which aired across Paramount’s smart TV network during the broadcast, was just part of a broader campaign orchestrated by the Diaspora Ministry and the National Information Directorate, i24 News reports.
The campaign included smart TV advertisements, digital billboards in Washington and New York, and radio broadcasts targeting current affairs and sports segments. Ahead of the big game, another one-minute-long Ad was released, featuring ‘Prison Break’ actor Michael Rapaport, who urged viewers to download and sign up on the Lifeshiftr app to join in the initiative and contact their local representative about the hostage situation. Furthermore, yet another 15-second ad titled “136 Seats” was also released to call attention to the 136 hostages that remain in Hamas captivity following the deadly terrorist attack.
