“We’re being murdered in our homes, executed in our beds … We will make sure that those who harm us pay a heavy price. ” These are the words that were blasted on a phone screen during an innocent puzzle game. The reader? A six-year-old London boy.
The boy was shocked when his game stopped and played an ad featuring footage of Hamas, terrified Israeli families and blurred graphic footage. The boy’s mother, Assis, a 28-year-old barista, was equally shocked.
Assis said the ad left her son visibly shaken and pale, and she quickly deleted the game. In a phone interview, she told Reuters: “He literally said, ‘What is this bloody ad doing in my game?'”.
It is unclear how the ad appeared in the game, but the boy is not the first to witness these ads. At least five other cases have been confirmed across Europe where the same pro-Israel video, which carried footage of rocket attacks, a fiery explosion, and masked gunmen, was shown to gamers, including several children. With at least one case being shown in a game of Angry Birds.
SEGA-owned developer Rovio, who is responsible for making Angry Birds, said, “Somehow, these ads with disturbing content have, in error, made it through to our game”. Rovio confirmed that the ads are now being blocked manually to ensure this doesn’t occur again.
David Saranga, Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs head of digital, confirmed that the video was a government-promoted ad but didn’t know how it ended up inside the games. The footage is part of a larger advocacy drive that has seen the Ministry spend $2.4 million on internet ads since the October 7 Hamas attack that ignited the war in Gaza.
The 43 advertising firms that are listed on the Rovio website were contacted by Reuters. Of those partners, 12 responded, including Amazon, Index Exchange and Pinterest, and said they were not responsible for the ad appearing on the game.
Google ran over 90 ads for the foreign ministry but declined to comment on where it displayed them. X, formerly known as Twitter, was contacted by Reuters but didn’t respond to requests for comment.
In Britain – where Assis and her son live – the Advertising Standards Authority monitors publicity campaigns. The authority said that while it was not currently investigating any ads from the Israeli government, in general, any publicity should avoid overly graphic images, and footage of this nature should be targeted away from under-18 audiences.
