Over the past two years, the Home Front Command has invested 10 million shekels in advertising designed to prepare the public for entry into protected areas.
Data from Yifat Advertising Control shows that advertising was mainly divided around two main areas - increasing awareness of protected spaces during an earthquake; and introducing a warning time for a protected space during war.
The campaigns are being carried out for the Home Front Command by the McCann-Erickson advertising agency.
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Data from Yifat Advertising Control shows that the scope of media investment surrounding this campaign was approximately 3 million shekels in real prices, of which approximately 1.7 million shekels were directed to television advertising, and approximately 1.4 million shekels to digital advertising.
Uri Geller, who stars in the campaign, received a relatively small payment for stars of his stature - about 60,000 shekels, which he donated to charity. In addition, McCann-Erickson launched another campaign this year starring the Home Front Command Band.
The campaign starring Uri Geller has been drawing criticism in recent days from elements outside the advertising industry, who see the use of presenter Geller (who was perceived as expensive to use) and the volume of advertising invested by the Home Front Command as problematic, at a time when defense spending is supposed to be cut.
Richie Hunter, CEO of McCann-Erickson, said about this today (Tuesday): "As someone who was in the army for 10 years, I am proud to work with the Home Front Command. The talent (Uri Geller) took a tiny amount compared to any other talent we would take, and he donated that too to charity.".
He said, "After a summer like the one we had, we all understand that there is logic in educating the people of Israel. The goal was to prepare the public for entering the protected areas, even though no one thought there would be a war. This is an important issue that needs to be highlighted. The campaign starring Geller created a conversation and achieved results.".
It should be noted that in addition to the investment of approximately 3 million shekels in the campaign with Uri Geller, another 7 million shekels were invested in advertising on the subject of entry into protected areas, spread over two years, so that in total, 10 million shekels were invested in advertising on the subject in two years (approximately 5 million shekels per year).
