It all started when the Australian TV show, Gruen, asked us to make a fake ad for a segment called The Pitch. In it, agencies are free to make an ad without real-world constraints. In it, we encouraged people to get vaxxed, highlighting flaws in the arguments of the vaccine hesitant. We decided to troll Joe Rogan, and his science skeptic followers, because this demographic appears to be one of the hardest to reach with pro mainstream science messages. Eventually the piece made it to Joe, and, ironically, he thought it was real, sharing it with his 13 million followers. When someone pointed out that he hadn’t done his own research – it was from an Australian Comedy show – he added a small caveat at the end. “EDIT: apparently this is not a real ad. It’s from a satirical show”
Our idea tackled the challenge Australia faced with consumers wanting to choose their vaccine and the power of the brand in making that choice. By using a high pressure situation to explore how “we don’t question the science when our lives depend on it, so why question it when millions of lives depend on it”, we reassured viewers that “Science has our back” and to get the vax.
