(Image: Private Media/Tom Red)
The Sydney advertising guru Siimon Reynolds isn t everyone s cup of tea, especially since he inserted an extra I into his first name (like the S in Sussan Ley) for numerology reasons an affectation which gave Siimon, creator of the knock em over like bowling pins HIV/AIDS scare campaign of the 1980s, that all important brand differentiation. Pretentious? Moi?
But Reynolds hit the nail on the head when he said you can t bore people into action a comment he has made on the federal government s new band-aid-on-the-arm COVID-19 campaign to get people up and out to be vaccinated.
Australian Government’s Vaccination Commercial Meets With Heavy Public Backlash
The federal government’s $41 million (US$ 30.7 million) nationwide “Arm Yourself” campaign, to encourage Australians to get vaccinated with a COVID-19 jab has come under intense criticism after members of the public took to the social media platform Twitter to vent their frustration.
The 30-second commercial, which aired on Sydney television on Sunday, features a young woman on a ventilator struggling to breathe as her heart monitor beeps, with the message: “COVID-19 can affect anyone. Stay home. Get tested. Book your vaccination.”
“This ad should be immediately taken off air,” adjunct professor Bill Bowtell wrote in a post on Twitter. Bowtell is a strategic health consultant at the University of NSW and worked on the now famous 1987 Grim Reaper HIV/AIDS campaign in Australia.
Siimon Reynolds | Brisbane Times brisbanetimes.com.au - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from brisbanetimes.com.au Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Arm Yourself: The industry response to the latest government Covid-19 campaigns
Mumbrella asks Australian industry experts for their thoughts on the two new vaccination campaigns.
July 12, 2021 10:41
by MUMBRELLA TEAM
Following the two new COVID-19 vaccination campaigns that emerged over the weekend, Mumbrella went to a range of industry leaders to get their thoughts on how the government is encouraging Australians to get the jab.
Here are their responses:
Adam Ferrier, founder of Thinkerbell:
“Like everything in the vaccine rollout these ads are late, confused and full of mixed messages.
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Cornering one of Australia’s best agencies and making them produce something so convoluted is no mean feat.
Confronting COVID ad’s message has been misinterpreted
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Health and advertising experts have criticised government ad campaigns that promote COVID-19 vaccination, and Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce also said an ad showing a woman struggling to breathe was a misfire.
The federal government has rolled out two new coronavirus ad campaigns: one titled Arm Yourself, showing a variety of arms with band aids to promote the vaccination program, and another which is targeted at people in Sydney that shows a woman gasping for breath in a hospital bed.