‘Funeral Home’ drives ‘don’t get vaccinated’ truck around town to push vaccines

More than 181 million people in the United States have been vaccinated against COVID-19 as of September 20, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

That leaves about 45.4% of Americans who are not yet fully vaccinated against the virus. From the White House to local governments, widespread efforts continue to be made to try to get more Americans to get the jab.

In Mecklenburg County, North Carolina, home to the state’s largest city, Charlotte, the percentage of residents vaccinated falls just below the national average at 51.1%, according to the CDC.

As the Carolina Panthers played against the New Orleans Saints on Sunday, a Twitter user spotted a truck driving around Bank of America Stadium with the words “Don’t get vaccinated” printed in large print .

At first glance, the message may appear to be a strategy of anti-vaccine groups, but on closer inspection, it appears the message is from Wilmore Funeral Home.

Katie Guenther posted the photo with the caption “You all know I love a good marketing tactic. It’s a good tactic,” she wrote, accompanied by a laughing emoji.

“Perfection,” replied a Twitter user.

Some users weren’t so supportive, believing that such a serious issue shouldn’t be treated like this: “670,000 people don’t think it’s funny,” one user said, attaching a video from the installation of 670,000 white flags in Washington, DC, signifying the number of lives lost to the virus.

Under the larger post on the truck, a website for the supposed funeral home is advertised. After visiting the site, the message continues with the words “Get vaccinated now”, “If not, see you soon”.

After browsing the site, visitors will find that there is no such funeral home.

Clicking on the words “Get vaccinated now” takes you to StarMed Healthcare’s COVID-19 vaccine page. StarMed is an emergency care center in Charlotte.

So how did this happen? Boone Oakley, an advertising agency in Charlotte, came up with the idea for the campaign internally as a way to help push people to get vaccinated.

“Almost everyone here [at Boone Oakley] received their vaccines at StarMed, ”said David Oakley, president of Boone Oakley. News week.

He said he and his team found out about emergency care centers through their humorous Twitter feed.

“A lot of the pro-vaccine advertising is very straightforward,” Oakley said. “We thought, ‘Is there a way to change things and do it from a different angle? “”

Once they got the idea, they reached out to Crenshaw Visions in South Carolina to purchase their mobile billboard.

Oakley said that while they were a little nervous about the campaign, if just one person gets the shot because of it, it’s worth it.