Views for ads promoting COVID-19 vaccines have plummeted in recent months as demand for the shots dropped in the U.S., an analysis finds.
iSpot, a New York-based ad analytics company, performed the analysis for CNN and gathered data from May 2021 through July 2021 on pro-vaccine advertisements.
The company found that impressions on pro-vaccine television ads dropped by 80 percent over the summer.
This corresponds with the cratering of vaccine demand in the country from a high of 3.5 million per day in April to fewer than one million per day currently, as the remaining pool of Americans who wanted the vaccine slowly shrinking.
Impressions for ads encouraging Americans to get vaccinated dropped by 80 percent from May to July, as less people are watching TV and more people got vaccinated. Pictured: Former president George W. Bush encourages Americans to get vaccinated in a television ad
iSpot found that vaccine ad impressions reached their peak in May, with 3.5 billion impressions.
By July, the total had fallen to 713 million, an 80 percent drop.
There are a few reasons why.
Firstly, major events like the NFL playoffs, Super Bowl and March Madness – which draw millions of eyes – have since passed, meaning there are less eyes on the screens.
Summer, in general, has lower TV ratings.
Secondly, as the vaccine rollout began to stagnate, there was less advertising value in promoting the vaccine, since viewers were either vaccinated or likely to not want the shots at all.
The type of ads included in the data are often, emotional, ads that try to convince Americans to get jabbed by making it feel like a worldwide collective effort.
The FedEx ad, ‘Moving Forward’, for example, portrayed scenes of Americans taking part in normal gatherings from before the pandemic, with the company then mentioning its role in transporting the vaccines that are key to that return to normal.
A Google ad, ‘Get back to what you love’, shows a person moving from pandemic-related searches like ‘quarantine’ and ‘school closings’ to slowly removing the pandemic from search terms.
The ad ends with the search ‘covid vaccines near me’, portraying the shots as the key to the return to normal.
A Walmart ad, ‘Ready to Help Our Community’, shows the role Walmart is playing in the pandemic, offering testing and vaccines in their stores.
FedEx’s ‘Moving Forward’ was an ad that highlighted the shipping companies role in the vaccine rollout
‘Get back to what you love’, an ad by Google, highlights the many changes in life that come with the potential end of the pandemic
Walmart’s ‘Ready to help our community’ shows the role the retailer plays in the pandemic, from testing to administering vaccines
Ads had different levels of effectiveness as well.
According to iSpot, which gathered around 500 people for a focus group on the ads and their effectiveness, called these ’emotional’ ads the highest-rated among Republicans and Libertarians.
The two political identities are most likely to be skeptical of the vaccine, and also were more cynical in general than Democrats who were shown the ads.
Republicans and Libertarians were found not to respond well to an advertisement in which former presidents Barack Obama, Bill Clinton and George W Bush, told Americans ‘It’s Up To You’ to get the shots.
As Democrats, many Republicans will be naturally adversarial to Obama and Clinton.
President Bush may have his detractors among current Republicans as well after refusing to back Donald Trump in the 2020 Presidential election.
Barack Obama (pictured) joined former presidents George W. Bush and Bill Clinton in ‘It’s Up To You’, an ad encouraging Americans to get jabbed
A poll earlier this week found that almost one-third of Republicans do not plan on receiving the vaccine anyways.
As of Friday, 70 percent of Americans adults have received at least one dose of a Covid vaccine, with 60 percent being fully vaccinated.
Just about half of the total American population is fully vaccinated.
The vaccine rollout reached its peak in early April, when more than 3.5 million doses were being distributed each day.
In the time since, daily doses distributed have declined week-to-week, falling below 500,000 a day at some points this summer.
Demand for the vaccines are rising once again, though, as the Indian ‘Delta’ variant caused outbreak is prompting some to get their shots.
The White House said earlier this week that nearly 864,000 doses were given out in a 24-hour period on Wednesday and Thursday, the highest total in over a month.
