One of many social media graphics included within the «Wild to Gentle» flu vaccination marketing campaign run by the CDC.
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The Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention is stopping a profitable flu vaccination marketing campaign that juxtaposed photos of untamed animals, resembling a lion, with cute counterparts, like a kitten, as an analogy for a way immunization may help tame the flu.
The information was shared with workers throughout a gathering on Wednesday, in line with two CDC staffers who spoke with NPR on the situation of anonymity as a result of they weren’t approved to talk publicly, and a recording reviewed by NPR.
In the course of the assembly, management on the Nationwide Heart for Immunization and Respiratory Illnesses advised CDC workers the Division of Well being and Human Providers had reviewed the marketing campaign and suggested that it could not proceed.
The transfer comes throughout Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s first full week on the job as head of HHS.
The «Wild to Gentle» flu vaccination marketing campaign sought to encourage folks to get the flu vaccine. Specifically, the marketing campaign aimed to speak that flu vaccination can reduce signs and the prospect of getting severely unwell, even when it would not forestall somebody from catching the flu.
The Trump administration’s resolution to drag the marketing campaign comes within the midst of a brutal flu season that is nonetheless raging. Greater than 50,000 sufferers had been admitted to hospitals for influenza through the week ending Feb. 8, the very best stage in 15 years.
Paid media for the advert marketing campaign was ending on Wednesday, in line with the present CDC workers member who spoke to NPR. The web site for the «Wild to Gentle» vaccination marketing campaign is already offline.
Requests for remark to the CDC and HHS weren’t instantly returned.
The marketing campaign sought to «reset public expectations round what a flu vaccine can do within the occasion that it doesn’t completely forestall sickness,» in accordance to the CDC’s webpage describing the launch of the marketing campaign in 2023. It was renewed for the present flu season.
«We discovered that it was very profitable—folks understood the message, [and] they had been swayed by the message,» Erin Burns, affiliate director for communications within the CDC’s influenza division, advised the commerce web site Fierce Pharma in October 2024.
The marketing campaign was a response to falling flu vaccination charges for the reason that begin of the COVID-19 pandemic and focused teams at greater danger, the CDC’s launch webpages mentioned, «particularly pregnant ladies and youngsters.»
«The CDC marketing campaign is a inventive and efficient means of conveying a particularly vital public well being message about ‘partial safety’ vs. ‘full prevention’ of illness,» Marla Dalton, govt director of the Nationwide Basis for Infectious Illnesses, advised NPR in an e mail.
Whereas it was primarily digital, the marketing campaign additionally discovered a house in public transit over the autumn. «Wild to Gentle» branding was wrapped round trains in 4 main cities and advertisements had been featured at mass transit stations. In keeping with a presentation from CDC in November, these advertisements reached greater than 30 million riders and generated one other 30 million digital impressions by the top of October final yr.
It is unclear how a lot time was left within the marketing campaign, however it could have not less than gone by means of the top of this flu season and the supplies would have stayed on the company’s web site, one of many CDC staffers advised NPR.
Have data you need to share concerning the ongoing adjustments at federal well being companies? Attain out by way of encrypted communications: Will Stone @wstonereports.95
