Truck for Funeral Home That Says 'Don't Get Vaccinated' Actually Part of Pro-Vaccine Campaign

BooneOakley Twitter

A truck painted to look like it belonged to a funeral home went viral over the weekend for bearing anti-COVID vaccine messaging — but it was all part of a campaign meant to encourage just the opposite.

"Wilmore Funeral Home" was plastered on the side of a black truck that circled outside of the Bank of America Stadium in North Carolina during Sunday's Carolina Panthers game, CNN reported. Bold white lettering reading "Don't get vaccinated" was also plastered on the vehicle, with a link to the funeral home, and a phone number.

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Wilmore Funeral House is nonexistent, however — the creation of ad agency BooneOakley. When internet users access the website, the landing page has a message that simply states, "Get vaccinated now. If not, see you soon."

The page also has a link to StarMed, which allows people to register to get vaccinated at health care providers in the area.

BooneOakley took responsibility for the truck and campaign, Wednesday, writing on Twitter, "It was us. Get vaccinated."

The agency director, David Oakley, told CNN, "I just feel like conventional advertising is not working. Like, just regular messages that say 'Get the Shot' or 'Go Get Vaccinated' ... they just kind of blend in with everything else. We wanted to do something that saw it from a different perspective and kind of shocks people into thinking, 'Holy moly, man.'"

Getty COVID vaccine

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He continued, "I think the reason we did it was because we want people to get vaccinated and I believe even if just one person gets vaccinated because of that billboard, I give it a grand success. Just one person, it will be worth it to me," Oakley told CNN.

Oakley added that he and his team members "share the frustration with a lot of people who aren't getting vaccinated," which is why they created the ad in partnership with StarMed.

"As a health care organization, they were a little bit, let's just say a little nervous about it," he told CNN. "We were nervous about it too to be honest, and how it would go over. But they agreed to let us link to their site and that was phenomenal, because that's what made the whole thing work-- to me, anyway."

StarMed marketing team member Adam Hummell told the outlet their website has seen a significant boost since the ad circulated.

Getty A person getting vaccinated

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Chris Dobbins, StarMed's chief of relations and response, told the Washington Post, he found out about the campaign after receiving numerous calls and noticing a spike in web traffic.

"It's not your typical marketing plan. But sure enough, people looked," he told the outlet. "If it's going to educate and motivate people, we're going to appreciate it."

The company's chief medical officer, Arin Piramzadian, told the Charlotte Observer he was "100 percent for it" because it brought attention to COVID vaccines. He also noted he found out about the ad on Facebook on Monday.

"We know that 99% of people who are ending up in the hospital and dying are unvaccinated," he told the outlet. "If that statistic does not scare people ... I'm not sure what does."

Piramzadian added, "Perhaps a dark humor aspect such as this one does catch someone's attention."

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Many workers at StarMed seemed to have been kept in the dark about the marketing scheme.

On Tuesday, their official Twitter account joked, "We had to resuscitate our Marketing Director with one of our defibrillators and explain that this was all @oakleydavid and his team @booneoakley ."

The latest data provided by the New York Times on Wednesday reveals only 49% of North Carolina residents are fully vaccinated.

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