Combating antisemitism after managing a football team is possible, so long as different behavioral tactics and strategies are used. But the evidence suggests otherwise.

It is one thing to successfully lead a professional football team, as New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft has done for over three decades. But in respect of another of Kraft’s passions, it is quite another matter to successfully fight antisemitism, as Kraft has attempted to do through the organization he backs: the Blue Square Alliance.

To be clear, the BSA does some exceptionally good work monitoring antisemitism online. Their Command Center produces some of the best analyses out there. But beyond that their activities are worth reviewing – as it shines a spotlight not just on them but on Jewish organizations’ activities generally who have applied themselves to this space.

The methods employed by BSA, notably the high-profile Super Bowl commercial – which has been done for several years now – and the promotion of a simple blue square as a unifying symbol, reveal a crucial issue. They suggest a failure to engage with behavioral science to understand the shaping of mass persuasion. Visibility alone, even at the scale of the Super Bowl, is not the same as influence.

Yet there was an appreciation something was needed beyond the usual in conceiving the latest Super Bowl offering. BSA’s president, Adam Katz, stressed that the ad wasn’t trying to appeal to a Jewish audience. Instead, the Super Bowl provides an opportunity to reach an audience that is “unengaged – and in many cases uninformed – about antisemitism… We’re very focused on this audience that’s lacking awareness, empathy and motivation to act.”

Despite appropriate intentions, the commercial nevertheless attracted criticism almost immediately on airing, and several Jewish users even produced alternative AI-generated Super Bowl ads on social media. It may have been a knee-jerk reaction born out of frustration for what might have been done with the opportunity, yet it also touched on something deeper. Without a framework grounded in how people actually think, feel, and adopt beliefs, even the most expensive campaigns (and this one reputedly cost $15m), and though reaching a viewership in excess of 100 million, risk becoming gestures rather than transformative interventions.

The BSA’s own campaign evaluation underscores this concern. Testing conducted by HarrisX and the Anti-Defamation........

© The Times of Israel (Blogs)