State Launches New COVID-19 Vaccine Ad Campaign

The state is launching a new ad campaign encouraging people to get a COVID-19 vaccine.

Thursday we'll get the latest COVID-19 vaccination numbers in Connecticut. The numbers have been rising every week, but the governor says they're not rising quickly enough.

The state has tried other tactics to increase vaccination numbers - free concert tickets, free drinks, and even cash. Now they're hitting social media and TV screens with a new ad campaign.

Steve Wolfberg, the chief creative officer for Cronin and Bonfire Productions, the agencies that created this campaign, sat down with NBC Connecticut's Dan Corcoran to discuss it.

Dan: "So Steve, that ad is called "Turned the Corner" and it really did take a turn. it started off really positive and then got serious really quickly. What was the thinking behind that?"

Steve: "Well, exactly that then that we wanted to pull people in with positivity, with hope. Show the positive things that returning the quarter or can turn the corner on hugs and back to hugs instead of high fives we all remember those days, but you know, dialogues that have dial-ins, and then just then kind of snapping the viewer back into a real reality, which is that that isn't going to be possible for those who have not been vaccinated, or certainly, they're the ones who are not vaccinated facing a different future, perhaps, and save the ad we just saw was just part one of this campaign."

Dan: "There's also some testimonials from real Connecticut residents. Let's take a quick listen to some of those."

See more of the COVID testimonials here and here.

Dan: "Alright, so let's talk a little bit about what we just saw and heard. Right? They're very emotional."

Steve: "Yeah, you know, we like to say that no, no voice speaks of more authority than the voice of truth and experience. And these people have gone through it. And you know, we could we can tell any stories that we want, you know, from the commercial standpoint. But boy, when you get the real story from these folks, and we didn't, we did not write a word of those scripts. We just spoke with these people. And they had so much to say they, they feel so passionately about the issue of getting vaccinated, all from different perspectives, somebody who had it, somebody whose father died of it, somebody whose congregation and she's running clinics to get people vaccinated. So very different perspectives. But coming to the same conclusion, which is, this state really needs to have as many people as possible vaccinated."