Politics

Young People Are Disgusted With The Government’s Graphic COVID Ad Telling Them To Get Vaccinated

"The only thing more terrifying than that Morrison Government COVID ad is the knowledge the same government didn’t order us enough vaccines."

by Michelle Rennex  12 July 2021
government vaccine ad young people

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There’s currently a horrific federal government ad circulating online and on-air that depicts a young woman laid in a hospital bed as she struggles to breathe after catching COVID-19.

The unbelievably grim ad — that even comes with a viewer discretion warning before footage starts to roll — runs for 30 seconds and focuses on a woman in her 20s or 30s gasping for air while strapped up to a ventilator.

The woman’s eyes dart around as she lays completely alone in the hospital despite clearly struggling. When she finally calms down and stares into the camera, the ad fades to black and text reads: “COVID-19 can affect anyone. Stay home. Get tested. Book your vaccination.”

The ad is targeted to Sydneysiders, and the use of a young actor and the messaging that COVID can affect anyone is clearly an attempt to appeal to young Australians to highlight the importance of staying home and getting vaccinated.

While the ad was made last year, the government decided to hold off on its release as COVID cases eased in Australia. But now with NSW reporting a steady increase in daily cases — including 112 local cases today alone — the government decided now was the perfect time to release their ad that stressed the importance of vaccination.

The issue? Young people — like the woman featured in the ad — have been desperate to get vaccinated but can’t under the government’s botched rollout scheme, which is why this graphic ad has been called out for being unbelievably irresponsible and offensive.

Despite attempts to reproduce a heavy ad similar to the “Grim Reaper” AIDS campaign from the 1980s, the government’s latest COVID ad has been criticised for shifting blame onto young people for something they cannot prevent as the recommended Pfizer vaccine still hasn’t been rolled out for under 40s.

Bill Bowtell, Adjunct Professor UNSW Strategic Health Policy Consultant, even called for the ad to be “immediately taken off air” due to the real-life impacts a lack of vaccines has caused.

“This ad should be immediately taken off air. Today in Sydney a young girl with COVID — about the same age as the actor in the ad — is on a ventilator fighting for her life,” Bowtell shared. “This insensitive ad can only distress her family and friends. It is misconceived in every way.”

People working in health care also voiced their concerns over how poorly healthcare professionals were portrayed in the government’s latest ad.

One retired palliative care specialist shared how “appalling” it is that the government implied that health workers would ever “allow that level of suffering”, while others highlighted that the real issue is the lack of vaccines available for young people.

“As a critical care RN for over 30 years, please understand NO patient would be left alone, unattended and in distress as this ad suggests is happening in a hospital setting,” one angered nurse noted. “It’s a pity the ‘character’ was unable to gain access to vaccination…that’s the message this ad sends me.”

“As an ICU specialist please know that we’d never deliberately let you suffer like that. We’d try to get increased support before it got that bad,” ICU specialist Tom Solano added.

However, Australia’s Chief Medical Officer Paul Kelly noted that the bleak ad was made this way on purpose.

“It is quite graphic. We are only doing this because of the situation in Sydney. And it will be running in Sydney,” Paul Kelly said. “It is quite graphic, and it’s meant to be graphic. It is meant to really push that message home that this is important.”

COVID-19 taskforce commander Lieutenant General John Frewen also defended the government’s decision to run the ad, claiming that while it was confronting it did the job of highlighting the “seriousness” of getting the virus.

“It is absolutely confronting and we didn’t use it lightly. There was serious consideration given to whether it was required and we took expert advice,” Frewen told Today this morning.“It is confronting but leaves people in no doubt about the seriousness of getting COVID, and it seeks to have people stay home, get tested, and get vaccinated as quickly as they can.”

“This is about shooting home that this is a serious situation and can get anybody,” Agriculture Minister David Littleproud added. “The fact we’re actually debating this I think says to me that the campaign we’ve approved is working.”

Sadly while the government thinks their COVID ad was a great success, most couldn’t help but poke fun at the ridiculousness of a campaign urging young people to get vaccinated when the government literally aren’t letting that happen.

Unfortunately, the federal government’s horrific COVID ad comes at a time where other countries are being praised for their positive campaigns that encourage vaccinations instead of shaming citizens who are unable to get them.

For example, France’s COVID campaign went viral over the weekend for how vaccination was portrayed as a good thing, rather than something scary and grim.

Similarly, New Zealand’s light-hearted “Ka kite, COVID” ad joyfully pushed the idea of vaccines bringing freedom over death, and Singapore’s “let’s test, let’s trace, let’s vaccinate” song was stuck in everyone’s head last week while the Federal government has, once again, just left Australia embarrassed with our version.