News Brief

San Francisco will see the “green” face of Israel on posters.

BlueStarPR, a public relations firm based in the city, has plastered the downtown area with posters declaring, “Who makes the greenest energy? Israel.” Founder Jonathan Carey says this marks the start of a new ad campaign for his 4-year-old firm, which promotes Israel in a city that is not always friendly to the Jewish state. “From the start, our PR goal has been to use issues that people already care about, like women, the LGBT community and the environment, and relate that to Israel,” Carey said. Sixteen large posters are now hanging at bus stops and high-density shopping locations in San Francisco. A second poster focusing on Israel’s solar technology as a way of helping America reduce its dependence on foreign oil will go up shortly, Carey said. That poster notes that Israeli solar power plants in Southern California already produce 90 percent of the world’s solar thermal power. Previous ad campaigns have focused on Israel as a diverse, open and democratic country where gays serve openly in the military and Arab women have the right to vote, among other things.

The campaigns, which take place largely in the San Francisco Bay Area, involve posters and billboards, as well as handouts on college campuses and videos on YouTube.