• by Les Luchter , August 28, 2024

More than two years after concluding its highly successful “We Can Do This” campaign, which resulted in 22.3 million Americans getting vaccinated against COVID-19, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has launched “Risk Less. Do More,” designed to educate Americans about the value of getting vaccinated against not only COVID, but two other respiratory diseases: flu and RSV (respiratory syncytial virus).

COVID itself takes center stage in one :30 spot, which begins by bluntly asking “Why are COVID-19 vaccines still needed?”

The answers: “This season’s vaccines target the newest variants, they build valuable protection, especially for anyone who is 65 or older, pregnant, living with a weakened immune system [or] living with health conditions such as heart disease, obesity, or depression,” and “staying up to date helps protect you against severe illness.”

The RSV vaccine effort includes display ads that deal specifically with two of that disease’s prime victims: infants and adults in long-term care facilities. One ad directed at healthcare providers states, “When you bring up RSV, you can bring down its risks.”

HHS says “Risk Less. Do More” will include paid advertising and media coverage on TV, radio, print, social, digital, and out-of-home platforms. While the campaign will reach all audiences, the federal department adds, it will place a “particular focus on those at highest risk, including older Americans and people who may have less access to health care information and support.”

"The campaign is working closely with federal agencies, as well as national and local partners, to amplify and extend the reach,” May Malik, HHS senior advisor for public education campaigns, said in a statement.

"The goal of the ‘Risk Less. Do More’ campaign is to increase confidence in vaccines that play an important role in preventing severe illness from these viruses and to provide the information that the American people need to make the decision to get vaccinated this fall and winter,” explained HHS assistant secretary for public affairs Jeffery A Nesbit.

The HHS didn’t cite a budget for the new campaign.

For the “We Can Do This” campaign, which HHS calls “one of the largest public education campaigns in U.S. history,” the department spent $276 million on paid media. Research released earlier this year found that the campaign generated a 90:1 return on investment.

Last week, amid an increasing number of COVID cases, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved updated Moderna and Pfizer vaccines to include a component targeting the Omicron variant KP.2 strain.