Video showing a pro-Israel ABC News billboard in NYC is fabricated
FILE - An NFT, or non-fungible token, is displayed on a billboard in Time Square, New York, on Nov. 4, 2021. The Associated Press on Wednesday, Nov. 15, 2023 reported on social media posts falsely claiming that a video shows a New York billboard ad in which a pro-Ukraine message is replaced by a pro-Israel one. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)
CLAIM: A video shows an ABC News billboard ad in New York City in which a pro-Ukraine message is replaced by a pro-Israel one.
AP’S ASSESSMENT: False. The video has been altered. The company that manages the billboard confirms that the display featured no such message. The billboard currently shows an ad for the upcoming Trolls movie.
THE FACTS: A viral video purports to show a billboard in Manhattan with a controversial message about the two most prominent conflicts in the world at the moment.
The brief clip shows a large multi-screen digital billboard display on the corner of a skyscraper bearing the message “Stand with Ukraine” and the blue and yellow of the country’s flag.
The missive is then knocked off the screen by the phrase “Stand with Israel” as the Israeli flag’s distinctive blue Star of David and white background replaces the Ukrainian flag.
The ad closes with the phrases “Watch the News” and “Stay in Trend.” The ABC News logo is also included after both statements.
“Advertising in New York... The text ‘Support Israel’ squeezes out the text ‘Support Ukraine’,” wrote one user who shared the clip on X, formerly Twitter. The post has been liked or shared more than 24,000 times as of Wednesday.
But the ad isn’t real, confirmed Jason King, a spokesperson for Clear Channel Outdoors, the company that owns the billboard.
“The ad in question is a fake and is not running, and hasn’t run, on our displays,” he wrote in an email Tuesday.
Spokespersons for ABC News didn’t respond to emails seeking comment, but social media users in recent days have taken videos and photos of the current billboard display that confirm it doesn’t show anything about the two wars.
Instead, the screens feature an advertisement for the upcoming “Trolls Band Together” film opening later this week.
In fact, the lower part of the animated movie’s ad display --set on traditional, non-digital billboards -- is visible in the fabricated video.
The billboard is part of an array located at 200 West 50th Street, just a few blocks north of Times Square, which has previously been the target of war-related fake billboard posts.
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This is part of AP’s effort to address widely shared misinformation, including work with outside companies and organizations to add factual context to misleading content that is circulating online. Learn more about fact-checking at AP.
