A funeral home truck emblazoned with the words "Don't get vaccinated" has been spotted driving around Charlotte, but the truth behind the stunt actually has a pro-vaccine message.
The truck, which advertised for a fictional funeral home, was seen driving around Bank of America Stadium during the Carolina Panthers home game against New Orleans on Sunday (September 19), per WCNC. What stood out was the message it was displaying, telling people not to get vaccinated and listing its website. When curious viewers went to the "funeral home's" website, they were met with another message: "Get vaccinated now. If not, see you soon." The page then redirects users to StarMed HealthCare's website.
"If that's my way of thinking, I might actually go to that link and take a look at it," said Chris Dobbins, StarMed HealthCare. "Now you've got an audience that would probably not pay attention."
"We're all about anything that will help us bring attention or motivation to our neighbors to get vaccinated," said Dobbins.
Even though the page directs users back to StarMed, they're not who is responsible for the truck. So who's actually behind the viral message?
According to WBTV, the billboard was a product of BooneOakley advertising agency, which owner David Oakley said specializes in "doing work that gets noticed, talked about and shared."
"A lot of the advertisements that you see right now for pro-vaccine are very simple like, 'get the shot,' 'get vaccinated,'" he said. "It's very simple. We wanted to do something that saw things from a different perspective."
Oakley continued, "I think any advertisement that is provocative is going to create a dialogue and when you get people talking, people have action and I'm hoping that the action is people will get the shot because of this."