Centres for Disease Control's Vaccine Campaign Targets Young Travellers with TikTok and FOMO

The holiday travel season is upon us and so, too, are rising cases of Covid-19 as families and friends gather. 

The Centres for Disease Control and Prevention is reaching out to some of the groups most resistant to vaccines, young adults, in the languages they know best: adventure, TikTok, and plain old FOMO.

The campaign, created by leading multicultural agency Sensis, based in Atlanta and Los Angeles, is aimed at vaccine-hesitant multicultural Gen Z and Millennials, with a special emphasis on Black populations. It was spurred by polling data that shows that these audiences, tired of being locked down for more than 18 months, are gearing up for travel. The campaign will run throughout December for the holiday travel season.

As the recent emergence of the Omicron variant shows, the Covid-19 environment continues to be complex, and not free of risk. “We want travellers to be able to protect themselves, their loved ones, and their communities,” says Sensis vice president Robyn Loube. “That means reaching vaccine-hesitant segments of Gen Z and Millennials as they make travel plans, so they can be vaccinated before they hop on a plane.”

Sensis developed a campaign that will reach these audiences on social media with the message that travel fun is just a shot away. “You might not be able to sip hot chocolate by the lodge fire after that ski run without proof of a Covid-19 vax,” says one social post, while others extol Grandma’s mashed potatoes and a girl’s weekend in SoFlo. Others talk about keeping family safe.

“The message is clear: you don’t want to miss out on an adventure this holiday season just because you’re not vaccinated,” Robyn says. “And you don’t want to get Grandma sick, either.”

Video posts that are running on TikTok and Instagram hammer home the idea that people may miss out on certain destinations if you’re not vaccinated. In one, a woman stares at clouds out the window of a plane. As the camera zooms out, we see that she’s looking into her own washing machine. “#DYK that many countries require proof of Covid-19 vaccination to enter?” the copy says.