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This paper explores the similarities between public policy evaluation and certain analyses carried out by activist organisations. It examines different advocacy work relying, as evaluations do, on evidence-based data collection in order to judge the effectiveness, coherence and relevance of certain public policies. Although these advocacy activities are not always named or referred to as public policy evaluation, two case studies illustrate and document how these activist evaluation processes mobilise evaluative information for advocacy purposes. In what way could this advocacy work, which aims to alert public opinion through a would-be evaluative approach, be more likely to generate controversy and public debate?