I’d previously assumed that the logo that showed up on the title screens for Moroccanoil was just another state owned oil company putting sponsorship money into random things, but the haircare ad at the end of yesterday’s broadcast let me to do some investigating.
It turns out Moroccanoil is an Israeli company and I haven’t seen many people talking about the potential conflict of interest here that might explain the EBU’s shady behaviour this year.
I did find this article about them from 2015 which links to a video of sales reps from the company partying in what “may be” the occupied west bank. They also do appear on various BDS lists.
There is also this article from The Sun which does connect this to Eurovision this year, but it’s from the sun so honestly that just makes the whole thing seem less credible.
Given the lack of information that I’ve found, I’m wondering what people here think? Do you know anything else about this? Do you think the EBU’s actions are related to this sponsorship? Do we even care because their behaviour was shitty whether their motivation was from the sponsorship or more directly political?
A listing in Companies House in the UK, with an Israeli address for their UK subsidiary
A listing in an Israeli registrar
An article in the Jerusalem post boasting about them being an Israeli company
A CNN video, which doesn’t play for me, but the title has the information you’re asking for