A second story on public relations for the Israeli government in the United States is doing the rounds (Politico broke this story) and both this news and the first story (which broke last year, here’s the link to it) involve a single agency. Both projects, which I very much view as being unethical in their aims and work undertaken, involve Havas, the France-HQed marketing and communications agency. Before I get into the why, I’ll quickly recap what this second story involves as it sheds a light on how easy it is to manipulate the large language models used by AI companies today. To quote from Politico:
Israel has launched a new campaign to influence how large-language models like ChatGPT are answering questions about Gaza and the Israel Defense Forces amid declining public support for the country across the U.S. political spectrum.
- French PR firm Havas Media, which runs the lion’s share of Israel’s FARA-registered foreign influence work in the U.S., appears to have stood up an “institute” aimed at feeding LLMs positive information about Israel via one of its subcontractors, boutique ad agency Piro, Inc.
- In a trove of FARA documents filed with the Justice Department in the last week — which have not previously been reported — Piro disclosed that over a dozen articles on the Hanover Institute for Public Policy’s website were part of a $100,000 campaign focused on “the creation and dissemination of factual, source-supported informational materials intended to educate the U.S. public regarding Israel and related issues through publicly distributed content.”
- The institute’s website features dozens of “data reports” with no named authors, each of which features questions like “Is the IDF the World’s Most Moral Army?” and “Is There a Policy of Starvation in Gaza?” — a telltale sign that the articles are designed to feed data to LLMs. The site’s “About” page says “The Hanover Institute for Public Policy studies the inputs fueling antisemitism in the United States, and publishes what the evidence shows,” adding that its unidentified founder “traces this work to a moment in childhood.”
- It appears to be working: ChatGPT and Perplexity both cited the Hanover Institute’s material in response to neutral tests run by PI, referring to the site’s content on Gaza, anti-Zionism and antisemitism.
- The site also features a disclosure tucked at the bottom: “This material is distributed by Piro, Inc. on behalf of Havas Media Germany GmbH on behalf of the Israel Government Advertising Agency (LaPam).” Technical markers reviewed by PI indicate that the site was built or hosted using Res, a Seattle-based AI startup that boasts about its work helping clients like Nike and Intel get recommended by AI models. An identical version of the institute’s homepage hosted on Res’ site became unavailable after PI reached out to the company for comment.
Let’s start with the ethical question, as it’s the easiest to answer. Industry bodies such as the CIPR and the PRSA clearly state that manipulating artificial intelligence in this way is unethical. These PR industry bodies seek to promote transparency, accountability and truthfulness, and expressly prohibit using AI to spread misinformation, fake quotes or skewed data.
The deception here was both clear and sophisticated, with a fake think tank, the Hanover Institute, being set up this month. Published over 100 anonymous, data-style reports focusing strictly on the Israel-Gaza conflict and antisemitism shortly after launching in August 2026. The reports were explicitly designed to be AI friendly, with format, citations and language which was optimized for AI usage. Piro was paid US$900,000 for the work, according to Responsible Statecraft. If you were a user of a service such as ChatGPT, you’d have easily been influenced by the findings of the Hanover Institute, which for all intents and purposes comes across as a legitimate US-based think tank.
Now, there’s the question of why. I do not subscribe to the view that everyone deserves public relations counsel. Some people, organizations and ideas are beyond the pale to me, and we are not legally mandated to defend anyone, as would be the case in a court of law. Havas is a global outfit, with a sizable presence in the Middle East. I am certain that many of its staffers here are Arab, and many more will be aghast at such work being carried out. Havas’ Middle East public relations CEO was the head of the Cannes PR Jury this year, which is commendable in terms of our own representation. Given that ethics is a key part of any award process, would this work by Havas have even been allowed entry by Cannes? I’ll leave you to answer that one.
In short, what is Havas thinking about its work for the Israeli government? Twice it has been found to have been undertaking what I would deem to be unethical projects, and it has been called out in both the media and social media. Is the cost to the company’s reputation, and potential business impact, worth it? To their credit, many of Stagwell’s employees in the Middle East raised up their voices to push back on the work the agency was doing on behalf of Havas in the US last year. I hope that Havas employees here are raising their voices against what the parent company is doing in the US. As an industry, we must push back both against unethical practices and causes which would not be deemed proper by our stakeholders. If you are affected by this, you have my support.
(Alex Malouf is Founder and Managing Director of Narrative Shapers.)
DISCLAIMER: The views and opinions expressed herein are strictly those of the author from his Substuck blog and do not represent the official stance or policy of Communicate.
