'Don’t get vaccinated': Ad agency comes up with cryptic message to boost vaccination in US city

An unconventional yet cryptic advertisement drew the attention of thousands who were thronging to the Bank of America Stadium in North Carolina’s Charlotte city, US, to witness a football game.

“Don’t get vaccinated,” read the digital billboards on a black truck’s side and rear panels.

Below the message on the billboard was the name and website of Wilmore Funeral Home. However, the advertisement contained a hidden message.

While visiting the website, people found that the funeral home mentioned on the truck did not exist and were instead greeted with this message: “Get vaccinated now. If not, see you soon.”

The whole idea was the brainchild of an advertising firm, BooneOakley, who decided to tackle the vaccine hesitancy and scepticism among the Americans with a novel approach.

Charlotte city has less than half its population is fully vaccinated. The ad agency director, David Oakley, said he needed something “out of the box” to persuade the people to get vaccinated.

“I just feel like conventional advertising is not working. Like, just regular messages that say 'Get the Shot' or 'Go Get Vaccinated' ... they just kind of blend in with everything else,” Oakley told CNN.

“We wanted to do something that saw it from a different perspective and kind of shocks people into thinking, ‘Holy moly, man’.”

“I believe even if just one person gets vaccinated because of that billboard, I give it a grand success. Just one person, it will be worth it to me,” Oakley added.

The advertisement received wide applause from the netizens in the US, with a Twitter user calling it “God-tier marketing”.

“Brilliant!,” one woman, Imelda March, wrote, while another said: “Nicely done, y’all.

(With inputs from agencies)