Get ready for a massive vaccine public health campaign
A $50 million campaign to promote the Covid-19 vaccine is coming
States received their first Covid-19 vaccines Monday, can I get a hallelujah? Now they just have to be distributed. Also in this week’s issue:
How do we feel about Crenshaw’s action movie-style ad?
A new exhibition celebrates the power of political quilts in America
Shrek is being added to the Library of Congress
Yours,
P.S. I’ll be off next week for the holidays. Merry Christmas to those celebrating!
Get ready for a massive vaccine public health campaign
National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases director Anthony Fauci said last week that if 75% to 80% of Americans get vaccinated by the second quarter of 2021, we could reach heard immunity and return to “some degree of normality” by the end of next year. The problem? An ABC News-Ipsos poll this week found just 40% would get the vaccine as soon as possible. Luckily, a multi-million dollar public health campaign to promote the vaccine is in the works.
The Covid Collaborative and the Ad Council are planning a $50 million ad campaign beginning early next year that will include television, digital, and outdoor ads. The campaign is expected to be one of the largest public education campaigns in history.
“Widespread adoption of the Covid-19 vaccine is our generation's 'moonshot' and will represent one of the largest public health interventions in our nation's history," Ad Council president and CEO Lisa Sherman said in a statement. "By bringing together the worlds of communications, public health, and policy, we can transform life as we know it today and save hundreds of thousands of lives.”
The Ad Council said the campaign will have four goals:
Identifying and addressing misconceptions and concerns around vaccine safety and effectiveness
Uniting trusted messengers, influential voices, and large-scale platforms around consistent, research-based messaging
Tailoring communications to reach multiple diverse audiences through strategic media placements and community-based outreach
Reinforcing the importance of wearing face masks as vaccines are rolled out
I’m most interested in what “trusted messengers” and “influential voices” they’ll use. A Kaiser Family Foundation study found high rates of vaccine hesitancy among Republicans, those aged 30-39, people who live in rural areas, and Black adults, so expect celebrities with large numbers of fans from those demographic groups.
How do we feel about Crenshaw’s action movie-style ad?
Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-Texas) released an ad Sunday titled “Georgia Reloaded” in which he parachutes out of an aircraft and fights… Antifa… in support of Republican Senate candidates in Georgia.
It’s a well-produced follow-up to a similar “Texas Reloaded” ad Crenshaw put out in September in support of congressional candidates in his home state in which he also jumped out of an aircraft.
Online, the ad was a hit — it’s been viewed more than 4.3 million times, and Crenshaw tweeted on Monday that the video raised more than $100,000 — but it also had some detractors. Military Times called it “horrifically cringeworthy” while Dallas Observer called it “self-aggrandizing.”
It’s not like we haven’t seen politicians lean into their veteran backgrounds or have some fun with pop culture before. Just this year, former Sen. Martha McSally (R-Arizona) released ads wearing her fighter pilot uniform, and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-New York) was a guest judge on “RuPaul’s Drag Race.” But this feels different.
Politicians have long played into common character archetypes to build their brands, but they’re typically more subtle than playing an actual action hero. While Crenshaw’s trying to draw attention to the race in a creative way, I don’t know how you’d describe the inclusion of a J.A.R.V.I.S.-style voice that complements Crenshaw on his form like he’s Iron Man as anything but self-aggrandizing.
I thought Washington Post TikTok guy and my former colleague Dave Jorgenson put it best when he tweeted that he thinks “this stuff works when politicians (Republicans and Democrats) are making fun of themselves - not trying really hard to look cool.”
What do you think? Is Crenshaw’s ad cool or nah?
A new exhibition celebrates the power of political quilts in America
Quilts have been used as a form of political expression throughout American history, by abolitionists, queer activists, and others. Now, the Toledo Museum of Art in Toledo, Ohio, is exploring quilting’s overlooked role in social movements in their exhibition “Radical Tradition: American Quilts and Social Change.”
The exhibition includes historic work, like an 1850 abolition quilt (below) and a quilt depicting Grover Cleveland from the late 1800s promoting suffrage, as well as contemporary pieces such as Bisa Butler’s 2020 quilt of a young Frederick Douglass, The Storm, the Whirlwind, and the Earthquake.
The museum said in a statement that they’re aiming to show how nearly two centuries of quilt making have “called into question long-established hierarchies, both in the art world and in society at large.”
“Disrupting our expectations of quilts as objects that provide warmth and comfort, this exhibition will explore the complicated and often overlooked stories quilts tell about the American experience, offering new perspectives on themes including military action and protest, civil rights, gender equality, queer aesthetics, and relationships with land and the environment,” the museum said.
The exhibition is open through Valentine’s Day 2021, and you can check out more work on Yello’s Instagram account.
Shrek is being added to the Library of Congress
The Library of Congress announced its 2020 National Film Registry inductees Monday, and they include “A Clockwork Orange,” “The Dark Knight,” “Grease,” “The Hurt Locker,” and most importantly, “Shrek.”
This year’s list of films is also record breaking, with a record number of films directed by women (10) and filmmakers of color (7).
You can check out the full list of inductees here.
Cleveland’s baseball team is getting a new mascot
The Cleveland Indians announced Monday that they’re dropping their mascot name following conversions with fans, players, Cleveland leaders, and Native American tribes. In a statement, the team said they believe a new name will allow them to do a better job unifying the community.
The team already removed their “Chief Wahoo” logo from jerseys and caps prior to the 2019 season, and though they have continued to sell merchandise with the logo, all profits have been donated to causes in support of Native Americans, per the MLB.
No word yet on what the new mascot will be (the top alternative on a totally non-scientific, online Cleveland Plain Dealer poll is Spiders), but team owner Paul Dolan said it will not be Native American-themed. “It’s not going to be a half-step away from the Indians,” Dolan said.
One more thing…
Where is the lie?