Habayit Hayehudi crowdsources election campaign

Bennett calls for supporters to post text, video, photos to his Facebook profile for use in televised clip.

By LAHAV HARKOV
Naftali Bennett Facebook 390 (photo credit: Screenshot)
Naftali Bennett Facebook 390
(photo credit: Screenshot)
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.