The video has been viewed tens of millions of times on the X platform (Twitter). We see a street corner in New York, where there is a video screen. In the sequence, which lasts fourteen seconds, a first message “Stand with Ukraine” is displayed on the first side of the panel, the second displaying a Ukrainian flag.
A few seconds later a second message “Stand with Israel” bounces off the first, until it disappears from the screen at the bottom. Simultaneously, on the second side of the panel, the Ukrainian flag blurs, as if affected by a computer bug, to make way for an Israeli flag.
After a few seconds, both sides of the screen display “ABC News” logos topped with text: “Watch the news”, “Stay in trend”.
The post on
This publication therefore suggests that ABC News, an American news channel belonging to the ABC network, would have developed an advertising campaign on the fact of following the trend by abandoning support for Ukraine in the context of the war with Russia to support Israel in war with Hamas.
FAKE OFF
ABC News did not carry out a communications campaign replacing support for Ukraine with support for Israel. The video is a montage, originally broadcast in a Russian Telegram communication channel.
Asked by 20 minutes, a source within ABC says this video is not authentic because “it is not an ABC News commercial.” Billboard company Clear Channel Outdoors, whose brand is shown on the sign seen in the video, also told the verification site Lead Stories : “The ad you are referring to is false and was not shown on this or any other of our screens. “.
The billboard filmed in the video is on a building located at 200 W 50th Avenue in New York. Internet users were able to go to the scene to take images of the real advertising broadcast on these screens. As shown in the video of this internet user which indicates having filmed the advertising panel on Tuesday November 14, 2023 around 6 p.m. French time, the digital panel displays an advertisement for the film Trolls Band Together, which will be released on November 17 in the United States. This is also the advert that is on a screen below the one showing the fake ad campaign in the edited video.
The video was posted on a Russian Telegram channel
A reverse image search goes back to the source of the images, to try to identify the first time the video was published on the Internet. The oldest source that 20 minutes was able to identify a publication on a Russian Telegram channel titled “ Optimist in civilian clothes », run by a certain Polina Reutova, presented on her channel and in her appearances in the media as “journalist”, “media specialist”, and “historian”.
The video was posted in this channel on November 9, 2023, with the message (in Russian): “An American TV ad invites people to “follow the trend” and support Israel rather than Ukraine. In an advertisement broadcast in New York, the ABC news channel invites viewers to “follow the trend”. It is obvious from reading this ad that “Support Ukraine” is no longer in fashion. What’s trending now is support for Israel. It is amusing to note that the commercial passes above an advertisement for the cartoon “Trolls”. Is this subtle trolling or a coincidence? “.
This is not the first time that false communications campaigns have been used in the context of the war between Ukraine and Russia. 20 minutes Fake Off had already verified a false advertisement from the American Republican Party which accused Volodymyr Zelensky of embezzling money for his personal purposes, or a video montage of a sign displaying “Stop Zelensky. Stop war” in Japan.