The EBU’s research body tells how the Israeli government’s advertising agency fished by targeted advertising.
Israeli representative Yuval Raphael finished second in the Eurovision Song Contest.
Israel’s audience votes were fished in the Eurovision Song Contest, says the European Broadcasting Radiopiunion (EBU) research body Spotlight.
Spotlight has revealed the indications that the Israeli government’s advertising agency campaigned and used, among other things, state social media accounts to vote for Israel in Eurovision.
Israeli representative Yuval Raphael Ranked second in the Eurovision Song Contest. Israel collected the largest audience votes throughout the visa. He got more audience votes than a visa winner Austria JJ. From Finland to the Eurovision Song Contest New Day Will Rise Got 10 points of audience votes.
According to the research results, targeted ads were used in the campaign, including through Google’s platforms. Among other things, the advertisements told how the country’s representative can be voted up to 20 times.
The report also confirmed that there were no references to the use of artificial intelligence in advertising videos, which refers to the participant of the visa representative Yuval Raphael in the campaign.
At the beginning of May, videos on countries were released, competing in the same semifinals with Israel. As a result, the ads had also been targeted to Finland. Before the finals, the votes were fished more abundant, 35 from different countries.
Advertising for the participation of countries is allowed. The report points out that advertising campaigns were also conducted in other countries. Some of these were made by the artists themselves on their own social media platforms, and some were advertised through a local broadcasting company.
Israel has been required to exclude from the competition in previous years, as the country is undergoing extensive attacks on Gaza. However, EBU allowed Israel to participate this year.