Edu-tainment Tackles Vaccine Production

Despite criticism, more organizations continue to embrace “edu-tainment” in an effort to get their message out to the public. The latest group to try this approach is called “Fastervaccines.org“, whose aim is to encourage the development of new technologies to speed up vaccine production.

Headed by former US Senators Bob Graham and Jim Talent, this group has seized the recent shortage of both H1N1 and seasonal flu vaccines to point out the problems associated with vaccine production. The result is a video that showcases how technology has changed since the 1950’s, except has it applies to vaccine production, which is still grown in chicken eggs.

Graham and Talent, who lead the Commission on the Prevention of Weapons of Mass Destruction Proliferation and Terrorism, use this video to address a far more serious question.  If medicine can’t react quickly enough to stop the spread of flu, Graham asks, what will happen when, not if, someone releases a biological weapon? “We think the threat is real. We want to take steps to reduce our vulnerability,” says Graham, whose group predicted that someone would release a bioweapon somewhere by 2013.

The “viral video” was  directed by Hollywood veteran Jay Lavender, who wrote the 2006 hit The Break-Up. “We wanted people to pass it around and talk about it,” Larsen says. “We didn’t want to make an Army training film.

It remains to be seen how successful the effort with be, but it’s certainly a step in the right direction. Clients, especially those in government have to adapt to the changing media landscape. Press releases or stale public service announcements simply can’t compete for an audience in the age of YouTube, mobile communication devices, and 500 channels of cable TV.

“Edu-tainment” of the hybrid of education and entertainment offers the best hope at bridging that attention span gap. Creating messaging that includes entertainment elements such as a compelling narrative, action, and drama can certainly help gain the attention of your audience, but it can also leave an agency vulnerable to criticism and second guessing.

“When an agency produces a flashy video, with a Hollywood style approach” said Les Rayburn, director of High Noon Film, “it’s easy for someone to make political hay by accusing them of being wasteful or lavish”. High Noon Film is a leader in edu-tainment production and social marketing with many government clients.

“You have to be prepared to meet those objections head on. We try to point out that nothing is more wasteful that spending money on a video, poster, or PSA that no one pays attention to.”, Rayburn remarked, “And there has been serious scientific research to support that these types of productions are successful where others are not”.

“In the 1960’s, the US Government produced a whole series of radio, television, and film projects designed to help out with Civil Defense. Most of these are either forgotten, or the subject of ridicule now, but the one that is remembered is Duck and Cover“, commented Rayburn, “It was a simple message, told in an entertaining fashion. In some ways, it was ahead of it’s time. The trick is to create something that entertaining, that memorable, with an accurate, timely message”.

Non-profits and even traditional private sector companies have also begun to embrace edu-tainment to help their messages break through the cluttered media landscape. Coke, BMW, GoDaddy.com, and other companies have produced high profile narrative based projects where a storyline is introduced to consumers via television ads, and then continued on the company’s web site.

“It’s similar to product placement advertising” Rayburn commented, “companies want to extend the reach of their brand and engage consumers in other ways besides traditional advertising”.

So, while it may seem unusual for a policy group to use a short, humorous film about chicken eggs to push their message to elected officials, it certainly won’t be the last time that someone attempts to make someone laugh and think at the same time. Duck and Cover for the information age.