Parents and kids are both affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, but their concerns are drastically different.
With the FDA expected to authorize the vaccine for children ages 5 to 11 later this month, kids and parents both have a lot of questions about what to expect.
Children’s Health, a pediatric health care provider in Texas, offered hope and answers in its new educational campaign, which aims to increase COVID-19 vaccinations in the state.
The campaign’s premise is two-fold. One set of spots focuses on kids and their emotional needs by featuring kids who are excited to get back to school activities like field trips and playing sports — moments they would miss without being vaccinated.
In one clip, a girl reveals why she got the vaccine. “Why am I getting the COVID-19 vaccine? Because I’m not risking a chance to wow everyone at homecoming,” she says. The next scene reveals her elaborate, homemade homecoming dress, which is guaranteed to turn some heads. “They better be ready,” the girl says.
The spot ends with the tagline, “Don’t miss out. Get the vaccine.”
In another series of spots, parents ask real healthcare professionals questions about the vaccine. In one clip, a mother asks if the vaccine can affect her daughter’s fertility. Her daughter is embarrassed by the question, but both learn that the answer is no. “I could have told you that,” the daughter replies.
“Know the facts. Get them vaxxed,” reads the tagline.
Children’s Health aimed to debunk myths among both childrens’ and parents’ concerns to combat vaccine hesitancy in Texas, said Vanessa Peace, VP of marketing, Children’s Health.
“We dug in a little bit more and understood that the hesitancy for the most part came from just lack of understanding and certain concerns about topics such as fertility being impacted due to the vaccine or a child having previously had COVID 19,” she said.
But the campaign purposefully takes a humorous tone to lighten the conversation and reflect people’s shifting feelings about the pandemic.
“Families and children are exhausted by the talk of the pandemic,” Peace said. “We really wanted to appeal to how people are actually now talking about their situation in a little bit more of a lighthearted way. These are very serious and important topics, but we didn't want to get lost in the sea of messaging that's out there.”
The campaign will run across social media, print, audio and out-of-home. The spots will run in the Dallas/Fort Worth market and online.
To get one step ahead of the pandemic’s unpredictability, Children’s Health filmed extra content to be “cost effective” in anticipation of children under 12 getting vaccination approval, said Peace. The healthcare provider’s internal creative services team is also prepared to “quickly pivot” the campaign depending on evolving factors like the delta variant.
“The objective is to continue to get our children vaccinated, and we're going to continue to monitor that closely,” said Peace.