Last month, Portland agency Borders Perrin Norrander (BPN) created a satirical lifestyle brand for the anti-vaxxer set. Unvaccinated!Life put a snarky, yet Pinterest-worthy, spin on the ever-infuriating set of parents who think that not vaccinating their children—to prevent diseases that could be seen in an episode of Game of Thrones—is a good idea.
Not only can you buy a onesie or a hip truckers hat celebrating health-related stupidity, but the site also has Onion-esque posts about the thought process of anti-vaxxers (this one about third-hand information on vaccines is a favorite).
We won’t get into the science that proves vaccinations are critically necessary to children (and everyone around them), but the site certainly stuck it to the Jenny McCarthy fan club in its not-too-subtle way.
As we hear more reports of preventable disease outbreaks around the country due to a stunning lack of judgment, BPN continued the campaign with a duo of videos during last week’s World Immunization Week.
The first is positioned as an execution that the ad industry loves to tout: the manifesto video. Rolling stock photos and video provides an “inspirational” tone with a few well-placed jabs like “We are mothers, fathers, and newborn babies who can’t speak for themselves and we all believe the exact same thing—that we need to save ourselves from life-saving vaccines. Why? Because that’s what we read on the internet.”
The second video is a garden-variety pharma ad replete with the names of diseases like measles, mumps, rubella, diphtheria, meningitis, pertussis, poliomyelitis, tetanus, hepatitis B, tuberculosis, yellow fever—all highly preventable diseases that the video says “should have been left in the 20th century.”
There’s no word on where this campaign is headed next (but we’d vote for an American tour, pending funding, of course). In the meantime, you can still buy gear from the site with proceeds going to Nurses Who Vaccinate, an evidence-based (EVIDENCE, people!) group in the workplace, community and social media that advocates for some goddamn common sense.