Habayit Hayehudi’s election slogan is “something new is beginning,” so it makes
sense that the party would use a new, trendy tactic to produce its campaign
commercial – crowdsourcing.
Party leader Naftali Bennett asked his
supporters on Thursday to post suggestions in text, photo or video suggestions
for the party’s campaign, answering the question: What does Habayit Hayehudi
(the Jewish Home, in Hebrew) mean to you? Bennett posted his own YouTube clip,
in which he’s standing in front of a Habayit Hayehudi banner by a basketball
court.
“To me, Habayit Hayehudi is the crazy connection happening now
between hundreds of thousands of secular and religious people who believe in
values, Zionism and tradition,” he said.“Taking pictures with babies isn’t my
thing, and I don’t have a fancy office with a flag and a big library behind me,”
Bennett quipped in the video. “What I do have in Habayit Hayehudi is
you.”
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The party leader added that its supporters are its best
advertisement, which is why he is asking for their help.
Habayit Hayehudi
campaign manager Moshe Klughaft explained that filming election campaign
commercials in a studio is old-fashioned and expensive, and that he and Bennett
decided to use materials posted by supporters on social
networks.
Klughaft said text, video clips, songs, photos or anything else
Habayit Hayehudi voters can think of may be used in the
advertisement.
“The wisdom of crowds is greater than any professional,”
he added. “We promise to go over everything and use as much of the material as
possible in our commercial.”
Similarly, Labor launched its “open source”
campaign on Thursday, letting its Facebook supporters write its own variations
on party slogan “Bibi [Likud chairman Binyamin Netanyahu] is good for the rich,
Shelly [Labor chairwoman Yacimovich] is good for you.”
Users will be able
to download the graphic for free to upload to social media, or pay NIS 50 to NIS
500 for a bumper sticker, Tshirt or banner.
Campaign videos will be
aired, as in previous elections, at concentrated times and dates. The broadcasts
in Hebrew will from January 8 to 21 at 6 p.m. on Channel 10, 10 p.m. on Channel
1 and 11:15 p.m. on Channel 2. Radio ads will play on the same dates on Israel
Radio at 8 a.m., 2 p.m. and 6 p.m., and on Army Radio, for the first time ever,
at 8:30 p.m.
Habayit Hayehudi also launched its official English-speaking
campaign on Thursday, led by American-born Jeremy Gimpel, 14th on the party’s
candidates list, and Jeremy Saltan, former parliamentary assistant to National
Union leader Ya’acov Katz.
“We will focus our campaign on the values
Habayit Hayehudi represents. We plan to emphasize our commitment to aliya and
olim,
hasbara [public diplomacy], and Jewish education,” Gimpel
said.
Gimpel, who recruited 3,000 new members to Habayit Hayehudi, will
represent the party at
The Jerusalem Post political debates next month.