HHS vaccination ads use new tactic to increase Covid-19 vaccination rates: fear

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In a series of emotional ads released Wednesday morning, three unvaccinated Covid-19 survivors and an intensive care unit nurse talk about the virus’s toll.

It’s a radical departure from previous ads, which used positive messages – protecting the community, resuming normal activities, reuniting with friends – to convince hesitant Americans to roll up their sleeves.

Public opinion pundits praised the ads, saying it was time for a new approach – one that uses the death and misery many Americans witness firsthand.

“Real experiences, more than information, seem to move people, and here we have these messages that reinforce that real experience,” said Drew Altman, president and CEO of the Kaiser Family Foundation, which follows the opinion. public on immunization.

Recent Kaiser polls have found that knowing someone who has fallen seriously ill from Covid-19 or has died from the virus is one of the most powerful factors motivating Americans hesitant to get vaccinated.

The ads are part of a $ 250 million Covid-19 public education campaign led by the US Department of Health and Human Services.

“We believe these first-person accounts of people who have had direct experience with Covid can really underscore the danger of COVID-19,” said a senior HHS official involved in the ad campaign. “[It’s] really change the messenger. We let real people tell their own stories in their own words. “

“They gave me a five percent chance of living”

HHS ‘first round of Covid-19 vaccination announcements debuted in April and was professionally shot and featured heartwarming scenes of friends kissing and children together at sleepovers, with catchy music in the background.

Family in Virginia try to figure out how their healthy 10-year-old daughter died of Covid in five days
“Go on and live as you want, feel the sunlight on your face,” the singer hums in an announcement, as text appears on the screen: “After a year of saying no, imagine how well yes is going. do you good. ”
While this may have convinced some people to get the vaccine, it hasn’t worked for everyone. Vaccination rates began to slow last spring, and currently, nearly one in four eligible Americans has still not been vaccinated against Covid-19, according to the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The new batch of ads is much cruder.

The HHS official said his recent research showed testimonials from people affected by Covid-19 appealed to the unvaccinated, so they took to social media and found selfie videos of two survivors and a nurse of the intensive care unit.

“I’ve been in the hospital for 76 days now,” says a man named Terrell from St. Louis. He wears a hospital gown and has a cannula delivering oxygen to his nose, as the ad cuts images of him lying lifeless in a hospital bed covered with wires and tubes. “They gave me a five percent chance of living.”
“Two months ago I contracted the Delta variant of Covid-19. I haven’t been the same man since,” said a man named Kole from Monett, Missouri, in his selfie video.
Felicia, an intensive care nurse from Shreveport, Louisiana, cries as she talks about caring for young people with Covid-19.
California couple died from Covid-19 within weeks of each other, leaving 5 young children orphaned including a newborn

“The Delta wave that we’re seeing now – people are younger and sicker and we’re intubating and losing people my age and younger,” she says.

The commercials seem raw and there is no upbeat music.

“Our direction on the creative team was not to not improve them, not to shake the camera,” said the head of HHS. “The reason is that we wanted these to be as authentic as possible.”

HHS sent a film crew to one of the Covid-19 survivors. The fourth ad features Amanda in Richwood, Ohio, and shows her at home with her family.

“I had COVID, I was intubated and in a coma for 11 days,” she says directly to the camera. “I did not get the Covid vaccine. I was concerned about some of the side effects. However, if I had to do it again, I would definitely go for the Covid vaccine. I know I was very close to death. The fact that I almost didn’t come home with my husband and kids is terrifying. ”

15-second and 30-second versions of the ads will appear on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, Pinterest, and Nextdoor. They will also appear on national television, with a focus on areas with low vaccination rates.

Choose the approach that resonates

In any public health campaign, creators have a choice: to present the benefits of a particular intervention, such as vaccination, or to present the consequences of not using that intervention.

For many months, the media featured stories of unvaccinated people who fell ill with Covid-19 and regretted their decision, or stories of family members who lost unvaccinated loved ones to the virus.

But the HHS official said research earlier this year showed it was not the best approach to motivate Americans hesitant to vaccinate.

“We have to make sure that if we release a creative element, information to the world, we are not going to make the situation worse,” the official said. “As people make up their minds on something, the use of fear can actually work both ways.”

Lori Freeman, CEO of the National Association of County and City Health Officials, says she believes the ads will have an impact, given what she’s heard from her members, who have been on the ground for months to try. to convince hesitant Americans to get vaccinated. in their sleeves.

“I think it resonates more than ‘let’s sing kumbaya together and go to a concert together,’” Freeman said. “It’s a better approach to say ‘this is what you have to do to stay alive’ rather than ‘this is how to help the world’.”

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