In mid-November 2023, a video allegedly filmed in Times Square went viral on social media. The video shows a media banner where the Israeli flag appears instead of the Ukrainian flag, and the phrase “Support Ukraine” is replaced by words about support for Israel. We checked whether this advertisement is real.
There are two video variations on the Internet: one lasts 14 seconds, and the second is a three-second fragment. “Ukraine, move over”: an advertisement for aid to Israel appeared in New York. A video is broadcast on huge banners in which the inscription “Support Israel” apparently replaces the already boring “Support Ukraine”. Accompanied by the text is a “lagging” blue-yellow flag, which is replaced by a canvas with the Star of David,” reads one of the most popular video captions. Reportedthat thus through social outdoor advertising in the USA declares a “change of priorities western propaganda." Sometimes authors of publications add additional data: for example, what kind of billboards are there in New York more one thing that customer advertising - the American TV channel ABC (at the end of the video its logo appears with the inscription “Watch the news. Stay in trend”) and that the children’s cartoon “Trolls” is being advertised nearby.
Similar posts were published in the Telegram channels of TV presenters Ruslana Ostashko (99,000 views at the time of writing this analysis) and Olesya Loseva (12,000), radio host Armen Gasparyan (64,000), TV channel "TV Center" (121,000), editions "Ukraine.ru" (90,000), as well as "Uncle Slava"(193,000), Voblya (149,000), "Sheikh Tamir" (118,000), "What happened?"(95,000), "Belarusian security officer"(85,000), "Gossip"(82,000), "Yakov Kedmi"(65,000), "I'm aware"(65,000), "Truth of Russia"(63,000), "Infantryman" (53,000), "Talipov 𝐎𝐧𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐞" (52,000), "Tucker Carlson for Russia" (38,000), "New 🅉 Ukraine" (34,000), "Donetsk Z"(33,000), Wine o'Clock (32,000), "Thoughts Okhlobystin" (31,000), "News Bazaar 18+"(29,000), "Actually in Kharkov"(19,000), UK leaks (19,000), "Anton Shabashov"(17,000) and Peachblossom (15,000). Among other platforms, a video with a supposed advertisement can be found on VKontakte (for example, here, here And here), "Zene", TikTok, social networks X (formerly Twitter) and on news websites.
The viral video was distributed not only in the Russian-speaking segment of the Internet. For example, in X appeared two English-speaking tweet, which in total received more than 10 million views. In this regard, the video we are interested in was analyzed by many fact checkers from around the world, including publications AFP, Lead Stories, Reuters, "Fact meter", 20 Minutes, "Myth detector", StopFake, AP, USA Today, Newsweek and journalists BBC Verify. Below we have outlined the main arguments of our colleagues, and also added our own.
Judging by the captured buildings, the video was actually filmed in New York - on intersection 50th Street and 7th Avenue. This location is located in the very center of the city, near Times Square and Broadway, while only the same recording of the advertisement of interest is distributed on the Internet, which seems unlikely, given the resonant topic and busy location. In addition, “Verified” did not find any mention of such advertising website ABC News, nor on the broadcast network's social media (Facebook*, Instagram*, X, YouTube And TikTok).
The operator of the media billboard shown in the viral video is the company Clear Channel Outdoor (CCO) that visible by its logo near the screen. Edition Lead Stories emailed CCO for comment, and Jason King (senior vice president of corporate communications) called the video fake. “The advertisement you are referring to is fake. It was not shown on this or any of our other displays,” he wrote. A representative of the company told the publications the same thing. Newsweek, Reuters, AP, USA Today And AFP. A source from the American channel also told the newspaper 20 Minutes, agency AFP and publication Newsweekthat the ad has nothing to do with ABC News.
As mentioned above, under the viral advertisement of support for Israel, instead of Ukraine, there is a banner of the cartoon “Trolls-3» from DreamWorks studio. Journalist Jack Werner found other videos of the same screen posted on Snapchat as the video went viral. According to these records, a short trailer for the cartoon was shown at the top of the banner. Similar video subscribers sent BBC journalist Shayan Sardarizadeh, as well as on the spot went out AFP correspondent. Moreover, you can find panoramas streets, done in the same place in recent years, and make sure, which is on the top and bottom of that media billboard advertised one and same project.
The ending of the Trolls 3 trailer is even briefly visible at the very end of the fake video (at the 00:14 mark), right after the ABC News logo. That is, the authors of the fake forgot to trim the passage where a fragment of the original video shown on the screen remained.
It’s interesting that the fabricated video began to be widely distributed on November 13, with the earliest post with the fake “Verified”, as well as our colleagues from Lead Stories, AFP And 20 Minutes discovered in the Russian-language Telegram channel “Optimist in civilian clothes"(13,000 views), where the publication appeared a few days earlier - November 9 at 17:58 Moscow time. This channel has already been used several times mentioned in our analyzes of fakes. It belongs to Polina Reutova, who calls herself a journalist and historian and more than once appeared V different pro-Russian broadcasts. At the same time, we discovered three later posts in other Telegram channels, from which the spread of other fakes had previously begun: “V Hand of the Kremlin Z"(7000 views), "Shkvarka News" (3000) and "Shkvarka 2.0"(1100). All of them indicate that the video was sent by an anonymous subscriber - this method is often used by the creators of fakes.
Thus, similar advertisements about changing support priorities from Ukraine to Israel were not shown on the streets of New York. The basis of the video was indeed filmed in Times Square, but then unknown people changed the footage in a video editor, superimposing Ukrainian and Israeli flags on top of the cartoon advertisement, as well as phrases about support for these countries.
Creating similar fake videos from New York purporting to show the attitude of Americans towards Ukraine is a popular method practiced by the authors of fakes. Previously "Verified" sorted it out similar false reports about how Zelensky allegedly compared with a black hole called "Pis Duke" and even blew up. In addition, fake videos appeared with the phrases “Glory to Urine" And "Helping Jews = burning money"
*Russian authorities think Meta Platforms Inc., which owns the social networks Facebook and Instagram, is an extremist organization; its activities in Russia are prohibited.
Cover photo: social networks / collage “Verified”
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