Wunderman Thompson: Foundation to Combat Antisemitism’s #StandUptoJewishHate

Nearly 70% of Jewish Americans faced antisemitic hate online in 2022. On 27 March 2023, the Foundation to Combat Antisemitism (FCAS) launched its campaign to mobilise all Americans, and especially non-Jews, to #StandUpToJewishHate by using the blue square emoji as a unifying symbol of support. Jews only make up 2.4% of the American population yet are the victims of 55% of religious-based hate crimes.

The blue square first appeared, unannounced, during a live broadcast of The Voice, then on other networks, OOH, with influencers, in stadiums, even on the lapels of Members of Congress. It immediately became not only a visualisation of the problem, but a symbol of advocacy making it simple to understand and act.

The FCAS also rolled out powerful narrative commercials that showcase what antisemitism looks like for American Jews today and the role non-Jews can play in fighting hate and intolerance. The spots, created by Wunderman Thompson North America and directed by Derek Cianfrance (The Place Beyond the Pines, Blue Valentine, I Know This Much is True), highlight these scenarios.

While many Jews will easily relate to them, they were shot and scripted to humanise and contextualise antisemitism for non-Jewish audiences, and feature the role non-Jews can play to #StandUpToJewishHate.

The integrated ad campaign across NBCUniversal programming – driven by Mindshare – had hosts and talent from some of the network’s most popular shows introduce and raise awareness of the threat of antisemitism. The programming included NBC’s Emmy Award-winning series, The Voice, and Daytime Emmy Award-winning talk show, The Kelly Clarkson Show.

The campaign amassed five billion media impressions, 1,765 earned media stories, 854,000+ visits to www.standuptojewishhate.org and over 125K public social mentions. Celebrities including Tom Brady, Julianne Moore, Meek Mill and Jon Bon Jovi showed solidarity by posting #🟦.