New ‘Call to Arms’ vaccine campaign echoes Rosie the Riveter

A coalition of ad companies and a veterans’ group have joined forces for an ad campaign reminiscent of “Rosie the Riveter,” urging Americans to get vaccinated.

In a press release on BusinessWire, a coalition of tech platforms and ad companies including DailyMotion and the Ad Council announced a partnership with the Veterans Coalition for Vaccination (VCV) around an ad campaign depicting various Americans striking the “Rosie the Riveter” pose while showing off their vaccination bandage.

“As the Covid-19 crisis continues, even as the vaccines rollout, the advertising industry has an inherent duty to support fact-based journalism and to ensure continued access to accurate and timely information,” AdTechCares co-founder Ryanne Laredo said in the news release.

“We are proud to launch a campaign that is visually representative of the communities that we serve and reaffirms the VCV’s priority and commitment to equitable vaccine distribution,” added Veterans Coalition for Vaccination co-founder and Team Rubicon CMO Lorey Zlotnick. “We invite you to ‘roll up your sleeves’ and help us defeat this virus.”

The campaign comes on the heels of a similar effort launched by ad strategy company Amobee last year to encourage mask wearing and social distancing; that campaign eventually evolved into the larger AdTechCares coalition, which focuses on both the COVID-19 pandemic and supporting Black Lives Matter demonstrators.

The images are based on the iconic “We Can Do It!” poster depicting a female factory worker on the job during World War II, a poster which later became synonymous with the larger “Rosie the Riveter” cultural phenomenon celebrating women who replaced men in factories to support the war effort during the draft.

The ads will run in New York’s Times Square, as well as on digital platforms.

–Updated at 10:00 p.m. to correctly note Lorey Zlotnick’s title of Chief Marketing Officer of Team Rubicon.