FACT CHECK: Did Germany Make This Ad About Food Insecurity In America?

A video shared on Facebook purportedly shows an advertisement made by Germany about feeding Americans.

Verdict: False

The ad, which aired in the U.S., comes from an American nonprofit that seeks to end hunger and poverty.

Fact Check:

The Facebook post features a viral TikTok video that has garnered over 1.9 million likes to date. In the TikTok, a comment overlaying the video reads, “Germany is actually doing videos to help feed Americans.” The narrator of the ad, supposedly made by Germany, describes in German the girl in the video as experiencing little access to nutritious food.

“49 million Americans are struggling with food insecurity,” the German-speaking narrator says in part, according to subtitles. “They are hungry for more than a meal. Hungry for change. America needs Germany’s help. Now.” (RELATED: Facebook Post Attempts To Link Bus Ad About Pediatric Strokes To COVID-19 Vaccines)

While the advertisement is real, it was not made by Germany. Through a keyword search of relevant terms, Check Your Fact found the ad on Ad Forum, where it lists the campaign as “Great Nations Eat” and the advertiser as “Share Our Strength.” Share Our Strength, a U.S. nonprofit that, according to its website, seeks to end hunger and poverty, launched the “Great Nations Eat” campaign in 2015, according to a press release.

The ad in question, titled “Germany for America,” and a few other ads were created by Bartle Bogle Hegarty, a creative agency in New York, for the “Great Nations Eat” campaign launch. The ads aired in the U.S., according to the press release.

“As the goal of the campaign was first and foremost awareness, the creative allows for the facts to evoke the emotion,” the press release explains. “The campaign PSAs use an unconventional approach to contrast the problem of hunger in America versus other countries, surprising viewers with the facts.”

“This was really to try to think a little more disruptively to get people’s attention, to go right to the heart of the issue that people are not aware hunger is a problem in the United States,” Billy Shore, the executive chair of Share Our Strength, said of the ads in 2015, according to Fast Company. The outlet also quoted him as saying, “The idea was to do something different, and point out that America can’t be great on an empty stomach – really tap into this notion that it has to do with our strength as a nation, as a people, as a society.”

“In the United States, we constantly see PSA ads for other countries in need,” Diego Fonseca, the art director for “Germany for America,” said in a post, according to Newsweek. “To showcase the shocking truth that other countries have better statistics regarding food equality, we created PSAs depicting America as the country in need.”

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