The reliance on slick advertising in the early Covid response

The early Covid response in March 2020 relied on Clemenger BBDO coming on board to develop a public health campaign within a week, before pivoting to explain Alert Level restrictions.

This 212 page OIA on communications between Clemenger BBDO, the multi-national marketing and advertising agency, and government officials during March 2020 helped me construct the time line of Alert Levels being developed.

It showed how integral slick advertising and catchy slogans were to the Covid response - before it had even been decided what that Covid response would actually be.

Importantly it also sold compliance with public health messaging, including the unprecedented restrictions, as a type of freedom. ‘If you do this - then you will get that’ - was a frequent message. Comply now, get freedom later.

And if you didn’t comply with those restrictions, it was also twisted to mean you didn’t care. In April 2020 a go-to academic expert Siouxsie Wiles shut down questioning of the lockdown New Zealand had entered by saying, “Far too many people seem to value better outcomes for themselves but horrendous outcomes for others.”

Caring, and displaying that you cared, was a center piece of the messaging, which relied on incredible amounts of behavioral research aka nudging to achieve that. In February 2021 The Guardian credited the success of New Zealand’s Covid response to the ‘human touch’ in it. Clemenger BBDO used nudging to create a feeling of ‘togetherness’ to support compliance with Covid restrictions. The head of this work from within government, John Walsh at the Ministry of Primary Industries, called their aim to “trigger team spirit, not fear.”

The initial budget of $25 million was dwarfed by the over $79 million that the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet (DPMC) actually spent on what became the Unite Against Covid-19 campaign. This amount is before it was transferred to the national health service Te Whatu Ora/Health NZ in November 2022 who continued the campaign and spend. (The later vaccine advertising that used the same branding was over $50 million more on top of that.)

How it all started

I’ve covered the advertising spend and the nudging, but this 212 page OIA is a fun read in itself to add to that story.

Clemenger BBDO came on board with the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet (DPMC) on the 12th of March 2020 to develop a public health campaign on Covid. Clemenger BBDO excitedly announced on joining, “ready to jump in a room with you”.

Although the initial budget at $25 million appears pretty large, it didn’t follow standard procurement guidelines. Clemenger BBDO were hired with an exemption to standard procurement alongside media buying agency OMD. (Exemptions to procurement were common during Covid, when I covered the Covid Tracer app - it had an exemption for the agency they chose for it, as well as multiple companies involved in the nauseating Super Saturday vaxathon in 2021.)

On the same day Clemenger BBDO were hired Ministers in the Covid-19 Cabinet Committee were sent an email from a well-known New Zealand filmmaker offering their support as they had, “…been closely following what has been happening world over.” They urged Cabinet to reach out to the Film Advisory Board, “…to gain their collective ideas as you may well find some very creative solutions and suggestions.”

They suggested a campaign to, “…raise awareness as to how one could be unintentionally responsible for the death of an elder colleague or relative. This campaign should emphasize a social responsibility that many are not considering. I would happily volunteer my time to help with any TVC creation to these ends - and I know a number of other NZ filmmakers would as well.”

They gave government their suggestions for what to do which ranged from school closures and contact tracing to meals on wheels to requiring people entering elderly care facilities and airports to be temperature checked and further suggested, “It could be feasible to add an entry fee, of around $30, to cover the cost of a digital thermometer that communicates with one’s cell phone.”

I can say who I think this filmmaker was from this inaugral 6-person Screen Advisory Board that was set up in 2014 to largely support filming Avatar (I strangely can’t find much more information since their set-up) but you tell me your guesses.

By the following day on Friday the 13th of March Clemenger BBDO proposed a campaign of Covid messaging that balanced a reassuring tone with authority to encourage health seeking behaviors. They offered to work through the weekend in anticipation of filming the following week - which was eagerly accepted it looks like:

Academic Siouxie Wiles was contributing too with notes that were originally sent to then Director-General of Health Ashley Bloomfield and the Prime Minister’s Chief Science Advisor Juliet Gerrard, that found their way to the Clemenger BBDO team.

The weekend saw Clemenger BBDO buy Unite Against Covid-19 web domains and develop a series of basic messages on adopting 4 core behaviours, like washing hands, avoiding overseas travel and how to know when to self-isolate using behavioral nudging to induce a sense that Covid was the enemy. (And by the way - I assume everyone knows this by now but Covid is not spread by surface transmission, so all that cleaning of surfaces was pointless.)

There was also spots and posters devoted to being kind by specifically checking on neighbours and elderly people.

This is a huge contrast to then Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern’s public announcement during the later August 2021 Delta outbreak, and country wide lockdown, where she specifically instructed people to not talk to their neighbors.

And that’s in context.

It was was not ‘remember to talk to your neighbors socially distanced outside where there’s pretty much zero risk’ - but a flat out ‘do not talk to your neighbors’. Do not talk to them at all:

People are usually prevented from talking when it’s in someone’s interest that people don’t share their situation and grievances.

Clemenger BBDO also included a manifesto for Ardern to read, but I like to think of it more as a poem:

They also sent through a wish list of influencers they wanted to film with that week, requesting the Prime Minister’s Office approach them directly, and included an email template for the Prime Minister to use.

The spots were going to be between well known New Zealander’s sitting on a couch telling everyone to do what they were being told.

Clemenger BBDO explained it as, “…everyone to read the whole script and then cut a compile using a few lines from each person - demonstrating we're all pulling together from wherever we are. Does that make sense?”

Here’s a short sample from the OIA of the talent they were pursuing to instruct everyone on Covid precautions:

Yeah, they wanted you to take public health advice from the Bachelor that was married to Erin. (I don’t know who that is and I’m not looking it up.)

By Wednesday the 18th of March 2020, Clemenger BBDO reported a positive response from contacting the A list of talent from that group.

The collateral they were developing included a yes/no flow path for event organisers to follow to determine if they should go ahead with an event. All the collateral was based on health behavior messaging - Alert Levels and restrictions weren’t yet in play.

By Friday the 20th of March 2020 Clemenger BBDO were wrapping up filming and were anticipating finalising the edit over the weekend.

But just before 8am on Saturday the 21st of March they were sent the Alert Level diagram. They responded, “in design now”.

8 versions later - and before midday - they’d developed the 1 page Alert Level framework that Ardern presented that afternoon, while placing New Zealand into Alert Level 2.

Over the weekend Clemenger BBDO pivoted to develop a campaign that also explained Alert Level restrictions, including taking over already booked ad time that Coca-Cola didn’t want to use during the lockdown.

How it ended

By the end of July 2020 DPMC had spent over $19 million on the Unite Against Covid-19 public education campaign.

In November 2021, DPMC responded to a request by Minister of Finance, Grant Robertson who wanted more information into the expenditure on communications and engagement activity by DPMC. It was a little light on details, but in May 2021, after a spend of tens of millions - remembering the initial budget was $25 million, Clemenger BBDO were awarded the work through a standard procurement process for a further year.

Clemenger BBDO went on to win multiple national and international major awards for this advertising blitz. If you weren’t from New Zealand, any of those links will take you to the ubiquitous yellow and white themed Covid campaign that filled every single advertising medium during the height of the pandemic.

A quote from leadership Substacker Ed Brenegar seems apt. He calls this type of communication slash advertising as neutralizing independence, “You can see it in every communication vehicle. Its purpose is to convince people that compliance is a form of independence. In reality, this culture of seduction has produced a cult-like religious consciousness. It makes it easier to control people.”

Spending tens of millions to enforce types of behavior, and consequently how we think about them, perverts our independence. It is designed to influence what you think and say - and the incredible amounts spent on behavioral nudging and compliance messaging to support the government’s narrative deserve deep questions as part of an inquiry.