The "Don't get vaccinated" truck was a PSA from Boone Oakley

A "Don't get vaccinated" truck has been driving around Charlotte, North Carolina, causing a bit of a stir on social media. It's been photographed by other drivers who can't believe the message, and several photos of it made it to the top pages on Reddit and were tweeted out by funeral home-billboard spotters who came across it in traffic, and so it spread further. We helped a little by sharing a shot on twitter too. 

On Sunday as people flocked to the city as Carolina Panthers played the New Orleans Saints, the truck made laps around of the Bank of America Stadium, ensuring many people would see the ad. 

But just like the Walthan funeral home bait and switch, this wasn't an ad for a real funeral home either. The funeral home website at wilmorefuneralhome.com simply reads "get vaccinated now, if not, see you soon". It was a bait and switch, haha. Gotcha! 

So yeah, it was pretty much exactly like that ‘Text and Drive’ billboard from Walthan Funeral home in 2016 made by John St. This doesn't mean that Boone Oakley ever saw that, badlanders can happen to anyone, trust me. But it's pretty darn similar in its simplicity. 

David Oakley told CNN "I just feel like conventional advertising is not working. Like, just regular messages that say 'Get the Shot' or 'Go Get Vaccinated' ... they just kind of blend in with everything else. We wanted to do something that saw it from a different perspective and kind of shocks people into thinking, 'Holy moly, man.'"

Initially, I actually thought it was another stunt from John St. in Toronto, as the funeral home had a similar name with a W at the start, but as Booneoakley confessed to the stunt on Twitter, and press like CNN picked it up, everything was cleared up. 

Mary Gross, the copywriter who worked on the idea posed with the billboard truck on twitter as well, while carrying her baby on her hip. 

Don’t hire female creatives. They’ll just have babies and lose all their creativity. pic.twitter.com/s9MVQbpDWO

— mary gross (@maryfgross) September 21, 2021