Imagine you get an assignment the day before the 2026 election: make a campaign ad. You have no big budget, no experience in advertising, and no real understanding of the politicians who have been pulling the country in every direction.
Sounds impossible? Not really. Just look at this year’s campaign broadcasts and you’ll see all you need is an empty room, a green screen, a cheap camera, and either some AI software or a young scriptwriter running on coffee.
Then you need a short checklist: a face, a green screen, a candidate, and a slogan built on one simple word. Something like “this time,” “yes,” “no,” “only” or “don’t.” Add a couple more words and you’re done: “Don’t be a child.” “Don’t be a sucker.” Or just “Don’t be,” which might convince people to skip the line at the polling station altogether.
The bigger problem isn’t only that the ads look cheap and feel outdated. It’s that parties make them because the law says they have to. The law that governs election ads was passed in 1959, 67 years ago, and it has never been updated. So the parties, which get public money to reach voters, have mostly stopped putting real effort into ads. Instead, they focus on showing up in person, usually at Machane Yehuda market in Jerusalem or other markets around the country.
Right after each visit, the same clips flood every social network. They collect thousands of likes, and those likes become the measure of how popular, or how populist, a politician is.
Many of this year’s ads are made with AI, and the result is strange-looking cartoon versions of politicians that remind you of the old satire show HaChartzufim.
