Why Is Adland So Quiet When It Comes to Palestine?

UnPinked

Your monthly dose of creativity and feminism

The author of the image could not be identified.

The Arabic text in the image says: لستُ مهزوماً ما دُمتَ تُقاوم,

Which translates to: "I am not defeated as long as you resist."

It’s a well-known Palestinian phrase expressing resilience and the ongoing spirit of resistance. The watermelon imagery is symbolic too; it represents the Palestinian flag (red, green, black, and white) and has become a visual symbol of resistance and national identity, especially when the flag itself is censored.

Why Is Adland So Quiet When It Comes to Palestine?

This month, as a team, we felt a moral responsibility to once again ask: why does the advertising industry remain silent on Palestine, refusing even to acknowledge the ongoing genocide?

We previously discussed this back in June, when we noticed that not a single talk at Cannes Lions mentioned Palestine.

Not one session, not one panel, not one speaker.

Not about the genocide, not about the decades of occupation, colonisation, and apartheid the Palestinian people have endured for decades.

We work in an industry that never stops talking about purpose. Every award show has a category for it, every pitch deck has a slide about it.

We celebrate “brand bravery,” “standing up for what matters,” and “driving change through creativity.”

We champion campaigns on climate, Pride, mental health, Black Lives Matter, Ukraine, and women’s rights. Agencies and brands build entire reputations on their ability to align with social movements. And yet, when it comes to Palestine? Silence.

The Industry of Purpose — Until It Gets Political

That silence isn’t accidental. It’s strategic.

Silence from agencies terrified of upsetting clients.

Silence from networks protecting investors.

Silence from individuals worried about their jobs or reputations.

We call ourselves storytellers, but here we’ve chosen to stop telling the story altogether. And let’s be clear: silence is not neutral; it’s political.

“Free Palestine” should not be too radical for an industry that prides itself on shaking up culture. What feels radical and frankly, hypocritical is that an industry that claims to champion justice, equality, and creativity looks away the moment justice becomes uncomfortable, risky, or unprofitable.

Brand Safety or Moral Cowardice?

The excuse is often brand safety.

But as Adweek reported, the same automated filters that are supposed to protect advertisers from harmful content are systematically demonetising journalism on Gaza and Israel, flagging words like “occupation,” “bombing,” or “genocide” as unsafe.

The result? Revenue stripped from independent newsrooms and Palestinian reporters, and a distorted public narrative shaped by algorithmic fear.

Brand safety has quietly become moral censorship, a way to claim neutrality while suppressing anything that doesn’t align with corporate comfort.

Big Tech’s Complicity in Silence

It doesn’t stop with adland. The digital infrastructure we rely on — social platforms, search engines, and ad exchanges — is actively shaping what we see (and don’t see) about Gaza.

According to the Business & Human Rights Resource Centre, the Israeli government has been buying targeted Google ads designed to smear UNRWA (the UN’s agency for Palestinian refugees) and manipulate search results.

Meanwhile, a report from 7amleh – The Arab Centre for the Advancement of Social Media and Middle East Monitor reveals how Big Tech platforms censor Palestinian content, with Meta, YouTube, and X (formerly Twitter) removing or down-ranking posts documenting human rights violations, while allowing hate speech in Hebrew to spread freely.

These aren’t technical glitches. They’re systemic design choices, reflecting the same imbalance of power that lets advertisers and platforms profit while people are being silenced, displaced, and killed.

"Free Palestine - Palestinian Woman Keffiyeh" by Richie Duprey.

When Feminism Fails Palestine

And then let's discuss something that, as a community, we consider important: the role of women, not just in our industry but in society.

Talk of "empowering women" echoes loudly, until those women are Palestinian. Neoliberal feminism has made empowerment a marketable asset: a panel topic, a campaign hook, a hashtag. But it's silent when women are bombed in their homes, denied medical care, or buried under rubble.

Where are the women-in-leadership networks, the "sisterhood" collectives, the brand ambassadors for "women supporting women," when Palestinian women give birth without anaesthesia, when female journalists are murdered, when mothers dig for their children's bodies with bare hands?

This silence exposes what We Hate Pink has always stood against, a feminism that serves power instead of challenging it. If your feminism can't cross checkpoints, if it doesn't defend the women under occupation, then it's not liberation, it's PR.

When Experts Call It Genocide

When we say experts call this genocide, we’re not speaking in hyperbole.
We’re citing some of the world’s most credible legal and human rights authorities:

The Independent International Commission of Inquiry (UN Human Rights Council) concluded in its September 2025 report that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza, finding four of the five acts defined under the Genocide Convention and determining that “genocidal intent is the only reasonable inference” from the evidence.
Human Rights Watch, in its report Extermination and Acts of Genocide: Israel Deliberately Depriving Palestinians in Gaza of Water, argues that Israel’s systematic destruction of infrastructure and deprivation of essentials amount to genocide.
Amnesty International concluded in its December 2024 statement that Israel “has carried out acts prohibited under the Genocide Convention with the specific intent to destroy Palestinians in Gaza.”
The International Association of Genocide Scholars (IAGS) — a global body of over 500 academics and experts- passed a resolution recognising Israel’s actions in Gaza as meeting the legal definition of genocide.
UN human rights experts and Special Rapporteurs, including Francesca Albanese, have repeatedly warned that the international community’s failure to name and act on this genocide constitutes complicity.

These are not fringe voices.
They are jurists, historians, and investigators who have spent their careers studying genocide, from Rwanda to Bosnia, now applying the same frameworks to Gaza.

So when adland refuses even to say the word, it isn’t protecting neutrality; it’s protecting power.

What the Industry Must Confront

So here’s the uncomfortable question: what’s the point of “purpose” if it disappears the moment it collides with politics, power, and profit?

At We Hate Pink, we don’t believe in brand-safe feminism.
We don’t believe in brand-safe activism, and we refuse to be part of a culture that turns justice into a PR strategy.

If you work in this industry and you care, speak up.
Use your platform. Take the risk. Demand transparency from your clients and your tech partners.

Because if the people who literally shape stories, words, and images stay silent, then we’ve already chosen the wrong side of history.

Join the Conversation

We’re not asking for brand-safe statements or hashtags.
We’re asking for courage.

If you’re a creative, strategist, marketer, or media professional, use your influence to name what’s happening and refuse silence.

🗣️ Share this newsletter.
📣 Speak up at work.
✊🏽 Support Palestinian journalists and rights defenders.

Because justice isn’t a brand value, it’s a human one.

🔗 Sources & Further Reading

✍️ P.S.

We’d love to hear from you. What topics would you like to explore as a professional in the industry, and how can We Hate Pink support you in amplifying your voice? Drop us a line at hello@wehatepink.org.

💖 Keep creating and rethinking the system. We’ve got your back.

Until next time,
The We Hate Pink team

We Hate Pink is a community interest company that receives no sponsorship or financial support from any organisation. Our strength lies in the dedication and efforts of the people involved, driven purely by activism.

If you find our work valuable, please support us!

UnPinked

Your monthly dose of creativity and feminism

Why Is Adland So Quiet When It Comes to Palestine?

The Industry of Purpose — Until It Gets Political

Brand Safety or Moral Cowardice?

Big Tech’s Complicity in Silence

When Feminism Fails Palestine

When Experts Call It Genocide

What the Industry Must Confront

Join the Conversation

🔗 Sources & Further Reading

Media & Advertising Industry

Big Tech & Digital Censorship

Human Rights & Legal Framework

✍️ P.S.