Graphic pro-Israel ads make their way into children’s video games (updated)
30/10/2023 21:43
(Adds further comment from British ad body in paragraph 24)
By Raphael Satter, Katie Paul and Sheila Dang
Oct 30 (Reuters) - Maria Julia Assis was sitting down to
a meal in her terraced home in north London when her 6-year-old
son ran into the dining room, his face pale.
The puzzle game on his Android phone had been interrupted by
a video showing Hamas militants, terrified Israeli families and
blurred graphic footage. Over a black screen, a message from the
Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs told the first grader: "WE
WILL MAKE SURE THAT THOSE WHO HARM US PAY A HEAVY PRICE."
Assis, a 28-year-old barista from Brazil, said that the ad
left her son shaken and she quickly deleted the game.
"He was shocked," she said in a telephone interview last
week. "He literally said, 'What is this bloody ad doing in my
game?'"
Reuters has not been able to establish how the ad came to
her son's video game, but her family isn't alone. The news
agency has documented at least five other cases across Europe
where the same pro-Israel video, which carried footage of rocket
attacks, a fiery explosion, and masked gunmen, was shown to
gamers, including several children.
In at least one case, the ads were played inside the popular
"Angry Birds" game made by SEGA-owned developer Rovio
ROVIO.HE .
Rovio confirmed that "somehow these ads with disturbing
content have in error made it through to our game" and were now
being blocked manually. Spokesperson Lotta Backlund did not
provide details on which of its "dozen or so ad partners" had
supplied it with the ad.
Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs' head of digital, David
Saranga, confirmed that the video was a government-promoted ad
but said he had "no idea" how it ended up inside various games.
He said the footage was part of a larger advocacy drive by
the Israeli Foreign Ministry, which has spent $1.5 million on
internet ads since Hamas' Oct. 7 attack on civilians in southern
Israel ignited war in Gaza. He said officials had specifically
instructed advertisers "to block it for people under 18".
Saranga defended the graphic nature of the ad campaign.
"We want the world to understand that what happened here in
Israel," he said. "It's a massacre."
Reuters contacted 43 advertising firms that Rovio listed on
its website as "third-party data partners" to try to ascertain
who placed the ad in the games.
Of those partners, 12 responded, including Amazon AMZN.O ,
Index Exchange and Pinterest PINS.N , and said they were not
responsible for the ad appearing on Angry Birds.
Saranga said the ministry had spent money with ad companies
including Taboola TBLA.O , Outbrain OB.O , Alphabet's
GOOGL.O Google and X, formerly known as Twitter. Taboola and
Outbrain said they had nothing to do with the gaming ads.
Google ran more than 90 ads for the foreign ministry but
declined to comment on where it displayed those ads. X, formerly
known as Twitter, didn't respond to requests for comment.
Reuters found no evidence of an analogous Palestinian
digital advertising effort, save for a few Arabic-language
videos promoted by West Bank-based Palestine TV, a news agency
affiliated with the Palestinian Authority.
A representative from the Palestinian Authority's foreign
ministry shared a statement saying the ministry was working to
sway public opinion by sharing evidence of suffering in Gaza
under the Israeli bombardment that followed the Oct. 7 attack,
but did not say whether it was using advertising as a tool.
Representatives from Hamas, the Islamist movement that
governs Gaza, did not respond to Reuters requests for comment
about its media campaigns.
Reuters documented six cases – in Britain, France, Austria,
Germany and Holland – where people had seen the same or similar
ads as Assis' son or said their children had seen them. In the
Assis family's case, the ads appeared in a game called "Alice's
Mergeland" made by a developer called LazyDog Game. Other ads
appeared on family-friendly digital pastimes such as the
block-building game "Stack," puzzle game "Balls'n Ropes,"
"Solitaire: Card Game 2023," and run-and-jump adventure "Subway
Surfers."
Alexandra Marginean, a 24-year-old intern living in Munich
said she was surprised to see the pro-Israel video pop up in the
middle of her game of Solitaire.
"I had a very aggressive reaction to it," Marginean said.
LazyDog Game did not respond to requests for comment.
Stack's Ubisoft-owned UBIP.PA developer Ketchapp, Solitaire's
Austrian developer nerByte, Balls'n Ropes' Turkish developer
Rollic and Subway Surfers' Danish developer SYBO Games also did
not return messages seeking comment on the ads.
Apple AAPL.O and Alphabet's GOOGL.O Google, which police
the apps on their in-house software platforms for iPhones and
Android phones, respectively, referred questions back to the
games' developers.
Rules on advertisements vary by country, but in Britain -
where Assis and her son live - it's the Advertising Standards
Authority that monitors publicity campaigns. The authority said
that while it was not currently investigating any ads from the
Israeli government, in general any publicity should avoid
"overly graphic" images and that such footage should be
"carefully targeted away from under-18s."
(Reporting by Raphael Satter in Washington, Sheila Dang and
Katie Paul in New York; Editing by Ken Li and Lisa Shumaker)
((mailto:Raphael.Satter@thomsonreuters.com;))