Foundation to Combat Antisemitism | #StandUpToJewishHate

FCAS’s #StandUpToJewishHate addresses antisemitism in the US. It focuses activities on positive messaging, partnerships and equipping non-Jews to be upstanders for Jews. Despite its efforts, antisemitism is rising in the US, proven by FBI data. This project is linked to a sense of purpose and social responsibility, as it fulfills the role of the foundation.

Challenge

Jewish people represent 2.4% of the U.S. population but are victims of 55% of religious hate crimes. And yet over half of Americans (52%) don’t believe “antisemitism is a big problem” 45% believe Jewish people are “more than capable of handling issues of antisemitism on their own.” The Foundation to Combat Antisemitism’s (FCAS) mission is to help address the hate against Jews in the U.S. In order to build allies in addressing the hate, we needed people to realize the size of the problem.

Idea

How do you get people to care about a problem they barely believe exists? Use data to make it impossible to argue with. We decided to put those data points front and center. To contextualize the small size of the population, we used a blue square to take over 2.4% of all screens in our paid media, representing the size of the US Jewish population. We then started a movement on social media prompting people to share the ???? emoji in their posts to further spread awareness of the size of Jewish hate. The ???? appeared on tv shows, networks, OOH, and social — quickly going from just a visualization of the problem to a symbol of advocacy already on every smartphone.

Insight

We set out to address a social problem most Americans didn’t believe is a problem. When your audience is predisposed to be suspicious of the message, the only way you can shift their prejudices is to untether them with data. Data enabled us to map the spectrum of antisemitism in America, to identify the drivers of apathy, and was the core message that shifted perceptions and behavior regarding antisemitism. How do you get people to reveal their prejudices in a survey? We devised research that asked respondents to share their experiences with a wide variety of topics and forms of discrimination. We used this data to create a segmentation resulting in our target audience of “apathetics.”

Delivery

The execution created impact and drove immediate action. It started with dimensionalizing how antisemitism goes unnoticed. Our ???? first showed up, unannounced on the The Voice, taking up 2.4% of screens. Many viewers didn’t even notice it until talent called attention to the ???? proving our point. They then explained the disparity between 2.4% of the population, receiving 55% of religious hate crimes. We also need to make our message contextually relevant. Since 70% of Jews experience hate online, we prompted users to add the ???? (always representing 2.4% of any screen) onto social profiles and posts. 114 nonsocial influencers fueled the conversation with support and shared experience

Results

Reach

• 5B media impressions
• Trended organically on Twitter 2x during launch week
• Engagement on TikTok +510% higher than platform average

Action

• 130,000+ requests for pins
• 854k+ visits to site

Behavioral shift

• 33% increase in likelihood to speak up on behalf of Jewish people
• 11% increase in agreement that doing nothing when hearing / seeing antisemitism is not okay

Support

• 113 unpaid posts from government leaders and celebrities