An ominous black truck displaying the message “Don’t get vaccinated” and the name Wilmore Funeral Home showed up Sunday at Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte, N.C.
Posts of the vehicle soon went viral on Twitter as attendees at the Carolina Panthers game and others in the city saw the message.
However, Wilmore Funeral Home doesn’t exist. The truck was part of an “unorthodox campaign” to promote COVID-19 vaccinations, according to The Washington Post.
Calling a number listed on the truck leads to a full voicemail box. If you follow the website address for Wilmore Funeral Home, you will find a page that reads “Get vaccinated now. If not, see you soon,” linked to the vaccine registration site for StarMed, a health-care provider in the Charlotte area.
StarMed wasn’t behind the campaign, said The Washington Post.
On Tuesday – more than a day after the truck appeared – North Carolina advertising firm BooneOakley admitted to organizing the stunt in a tweet.
David Oakley, the firm’s president, said the 22-person agency developed the fake funeral home business as a way to bring attention to the state’s vaccination problem. According to The Washington Post, less than half of North Carolina’s population is fully vaccinated against COVID-19.
“Everything that’s being done right now is pretty straightforward — ‘get the shot,’ ‘get vaccinated today,’” Oakley said in an interview. “It was a different way of going about the message.”
BooneOakley settled on StarMed as the health care provider to highlight due to its work to get the region vaccinated and its social media presence, said Oakley.
Chris Dobbins, StarMed’s chief of relations and response, said he found out about the campaign when he started getting calls inquiring about the truck. He said web traffic has spiked since the truck appeared and people have called to thank them for encouraging vaccinations.
While the campaign certainly caught people’s eyes and made headlines, some are concerned that it might backfire as an attempt to promote vaccines.
Stacy Wood, a professor at North Carolina State University who studies coronavirus vaccine promotion, said the campaign was too high-pressure to change an unvaccinated person’s mind, according to The Washington Post. She said it could even risk reinforcing their stance.
An article published by Ohio State News also argued that fear-based campaigns could be counter-productive for those who want to convince vaccine hesitant individuals to get shots.
“I can understand that the fake funeral truck stunt was embraced by the vaccinated as the relief of dark humor in a tense situation — it’s an effective joke, but not effective marketing,” Wood said.
Oakley said that if the campaign worked to change even one person’s mind, he considers it a success.
StarMed officials had a similar outlook. The company’s chief medical officer, Arin Piramzadian, told the Charlotte Observer he was “100 percent for it” if it saves a single patient’s life.
Related
Related
