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“I’m not getting the vaccine because it’s taking too long,” says TikTok creator Alicia Awa with reproachful squeaky voice into the camera, between the sentences typical TikTok quick cuts with different camera angles. She stands at a lectern in front of a blue background, which is reminiscent of the scenery of press conferences in the Chancellery or the lectern in the Bundestag. “But queuing in front of the club every weekend. Before that, three hours for hair, nails and make-up. But to wait briefly at the doctor for the vaccination? Not possible? It’s not just about you, it’s about us all. Go vaccinate. “
Few likes, many negative comments
With a few seconds long videos like this one, the federal government tries to convince adolescents and young adults to have a vaccination. In addition to Alicia Awa, she has the influencers Diademlori, Inscope21, SelfieSandra and Twenty4Tim (Links to the videos) won for the campaign, “which were remunerated according to reach and advertising effectiveness” and were proposed by the advertising agency “Zum golden Hirschen”, a framework contract partner of the government, said a spokesman for the Federal Press Office. These “address various objections that are raised against a corona vaccination”. The influencer Selfie Sandra, who has around 750,000 followers, says in her spot, for example: “I won’t get vaccinated because I’m afraid of the needle,” she cited an objection to the vaccination. “Were you also scared when you got botoxed?”
The most popular TikTok comments under the Alicia Awa video are downright negative. 16,400 users like the comment “Catastrophe”. “Words fail me,” many users say. “Omg [Oh mein Gott] what have I just watched, ”writes another influencer with 1.4 million followers under the video. There are hardly any positive comments. Alicia Awa reacts under the video: “The campaign is deliberately provocative so that people talk about it. And as I see we have achieved that, ”she writes. In fact, a good 4,000 comments are an extremely high number, so the video is controversial. So far there have been around 92,000 likes, which is very few on TikTok with 2.2 million views. So it doesn’t go down well.
The Federal Government is aware that the comments are mostly negative. “Of course we noticed the wide range of comments,” said the spokesman. That is inevitable with such a campaign on social media. “Everyone should freely express their own opinion.”
“Completely unacceptable”
However, the government criticizes the shitstorm that broke in through the influencers: “The hatred, the insults and threats of violence, however, are completely unacceptable and clearly cross a red line.” use the willingness to vaccinate, especially among the young target group ”. These are so far “vaccinated below average”.
At the request of the FAZ, only the management of Inscope21, whose real name is Nicolas Lazaridis, wants to comment officially. His manager Tim Krause-Murroni wrote in an email to the FAZ that they had taken note of the controversial reactions. “Personally, I think the approach of the campaign is correct.” This announcement by the Creators, who are role models for many young people, “can certainly motivate people” to get vaccinated, he says.
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