An advertisement for a “funeral home” spreads a message for the unvaccinated

(CNN) – The truck was named after a funeral home. But instead of a reassuring thought that could serve as a company slogan, the message on the side read: “Don’t get vaccinated.”

The black truck advertising “Wilmore Funeral Home” delivered that strong and unexpected message Sunday to football fans in downtown Charlotte as they drove to watch the Carolina Panthers game against the New Orleans Saints.

Many businessmen and public health officials are looking for ways to get more people vaccinated against COVID-19, using all sorts of means, from free money and food to luxurious vacations and VIP tickets to the Super Bowl. Fully vaccinated people represent only the 54.7% of the total population of the United States.

A Charlotte ad agency decided to put aside traditional marketing strategies and took matters into their own hands.
But here’s the catch.

There is no “Wilmore Funeral Home” and when you visit their website takes you to a page instructing visitors to do the opposite of what is written on the truck.

“Get vaccinated now” appears on the page, along with a message that says, “If not, see you soon.” The ad agency, BooneOakley, had decided it was time to get serious.

“I feel like mainstream advertising doesn’t work. For example, normal messages that say ‘Get vaccinated’ or ‘Go get vaccinated’ … get mixed up with everything else,” agency director David Oakley told CNN. “We wanted to do something that would show it from a different perspective and make people think, ‘Oh wow!’

Once site visitors click the “Get vaccinated now” box, they are redirected to StarMed, an emergency medical center in the area, which administers vaccines against covid-19.

In North Carolina, vaccination rates are below the national figures: about the 48.8% of residents are fully vaccinated.

“I think the reason we did it was because we want people to get vaccinated and I think that even if only one person gets vaccinated thanks to that poster, I will consider it a great success. Only one person, it will be worth it to me.” Oakley told CNN.

Knowing there would be crowds in line for Sunday’s game, Oakley said it seemed like an ideal opportunity to give people “something to talk about other than football.”

Katie Guenther says she certainly did, calling BooneOakley’s approach “pretty smart marketing.” By chance, I was driving around Charlotte during the game and saw the truck. As he walked past her, he could see a crowd of people staring at him.

“It was definitely getting a lot of attention,” Guenther, who is vaccinated, told CNN. “At first the message surprised me, of course, until I realized it was a funeral home.”

She added, “I’m not sure I’ve seen an advertisement for a funeral home and definitely not this way.”

“We share the frustration with many people who are not getting vaccinated,” Oakley said. “So we asked ourselves, what can we do to help? So our team was brainstorming some ideas one morning.”

And they thought of the companies that take care of some of the people who don’t get vaccinated.

“When people die, it’s funeral homes,” Oakley said.

From there, the group decided, beyond a vehicle for the message, to build a real website that links people to a vaccination site. Many people who work with Oakley have been vaccinated at StarMed.

“As a healthcare organization, they were a little, let’s say a little nervous about it,” he said. “We were nervous too, to be honest, and how it was going to turn out. But they agreed to let us link to their website and that was great, because that’s what made the whole thing work … for me, at least “.

StarMed has vaccinated “hundreds of thousands of people” and tested as many, according to Adam Hummell, a member of StarMed’s marketing team. Since the weekend, Hummell said traffic to get a vaccine appointment on the site has seen a significant increase.

“Since the beginning of the pandemic, here in Charlotte, our company has been a leader in all things related to covid testing, covid vaccines, and antibody therapy, and the reason we have done this is to alleviate Much of the pressure from the main healthcare systems, who have to take care of people in intensive care units, and all the surgeries that have to be done and all that. “

Hummell said the approach is typical of the agency, which often creates campaigns “to generate discussion and raise some eyebrows,” he said.

A truck that says “Don’t get vaccinated” in the middle of a pandemic? That might raise some eyebrows. But Oakley hopes it does more than that.