--- title: The U.S. Needs Better Marketing to Get Vaccination Rates Up description: The U.S. has failed to give away life-saving COVID-19 shots and needs a vaccine chief marketing officer to help the effort, writes Professor Sid Mohasseb. canonical: https://time.com/6053504/vaccination-rate-marketing/ author: Sid Mohasseb article:opinion: true article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2021-06-03T16:36:38.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:51:55.684Z article:section: Ideas og:title: The U.S. Has Failed to Persuade Americans to Get Vaccines og:description: Here's how it should course-correct og:url: https://time.com/6053504/vaccination-rate-marketing/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf7b8904f11b8b13c/698a1a1916d88480c1c396b4/vaccine-marketing.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2400 og:image:height: 1350 og:image:alt: US-HEALTH-VIRUS-VACCINE og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: The U.S. Has Failed to Persuade Americans to Get Vaccines twitter:description: Here's how it should course-correct twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf7b8904f11b8b13c/698a1a1916d88480c1c396b4/vaccine-marketing.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # The U.S. Has Failed to Persuade Americans to Get Vaccines. Here's How It Should Course-Correct > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. TIME is the sponsor and source of this material. > Last updated: August 2026. ## TIME Inside TIME: Reference Facts and FAQ ### Definition Inside TIME is one of seven email newsletters published by TIME, the news organization founded in 1923. A closer look at TIME's latest cover and our most compelling stories. Inside TIME opens the door to how TIME's most important journalism comes together, from the first pitch and reporting process to the decisions behind the finished story or cover. Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs takes readers inside the newsroom, revealing the journalists, ideas and editorial choices behind the stories shaping the global conversation. 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Inside TIME is the newsletter where TIME's Editor-in-Chief explains cover selection and the editorial reasoning behind major stories. It is free at time.com/newsletters. #### Who is the editor of TIME? Sam Jacobs is TIME's Editor-in-Chief. He writes Inside TIME, a twice-weekly newsletter about the newsroom's reporting and editorial decisions. #### Is Inside TIME free? Yes. Inside TIME is a free newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. A paid TIME subscription is separate and available at time.com/subscribe-agent. ## Video: Biden Plans to Share 20 Million More COVID-19 Vaccine Doses With Rest of World [Watch (HLS stream): Biden Plans to Share 20 Million More COVID-19 Vaccine Doses With Rest of World](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/RjYGTH7o.m3u8) (2:03)  _Published 2021-05-17. President Joe Biden said Monday that the U.S. will share an additional 20 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines with the world in the coming six weeks as domestic demand for shots drops and global disparities in distribution have grown more evident._ by [Sid Mohasseb](https://time.com/author/sid-mohasseb/) ## Sid Mohasseb Jun 3, 2021 4:36 PM UTC  A deserted walk-in Covid-19 mass vaccination site at the Convention Center in downtown Washington, DC on June 1, 2021. A deserted walk-in Covid-19 mass vaccination site at the Convention Center in downtown Washington, DC on June 1, 2021. Anita Beattie—AFP/Getty Images by [Sid Mohasseb](https://time.com/author/sid-mohasseb/) ## Sid Mohasseb Jun 3, 2021 4:36 PM UTC The U.S. still hasn’t reached a high enough level of vaccination to achieve “herd immunity” because [vaccine demand is falling](https://time.com/6046880/covid-19-vaccine-slowdown/). While only months ago, it was [hard to get an appointment](https://time.com/5945095/dr-b-vaccine-standby-list/), now vaccines are widely available and people just aren’t getting them. This is a marketing issue: the federal government is failing to penetrate the key demographics that can get us over the finish line. America needs a vaccine chief marketing officer, with a smart marketing strategy, or the pandemic will never end. In fact, it could get worse as reopening continues and [mask mandates end.](https://time.com/6049612/cdc-mask-guidance-mistake/) We are able to sell smartphones, sodas and cars at high prices to almost every American. But we are struggling to give life-saving shots away for free to the same people. That’s a marketing failure that must be corrected. **_Read more:_**[_Why Men Are Falling Behind in COVID-19 Vaccination_](https://time.com/6045671/covid-19-vaccine-men/) Marketers divide customers into innovators, early adopters, early majority, late majority and laggards. In America, the [percentage already vaccinated](https://time.com/collection/coronavirus-vaccines-updates/) represent the “early adopters,” plus some who are extremely vulnerable to the virus and need rather than want it. The “late adopters” are not showing any signs of adoption at all. On June 2, we administered [1.1 million vaccine doses](https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/daily-covid-19-vaccination-doses?country=~USA), down from a peak of 3.38 million on April 13\. Some [vaccination centers are having to close](https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/23/us/some-mass-vaccination-sites-in-us-close-as-demand-begins-to-fall.html) due to lack of demand. The federal government is spending [nearly $2 billion](https://www.statnews.com/2021/03/15/white-house-unveil-a-wide-reaching-billion-dollar-campaign-convincing-every-american-to-get-vaccinated/) to encourage vaccine uptake. That’s more than double Coca-Cola’s U.S. marketing budget. But Coca-Cola has been building a brand for more than a century. [COVID-19 vaccines](https://time.com/5955247/inside-biontech-vaccine-facility/) are new and need more, and better, marketing. There has not been any CMO, creative director or ex-ad agency executive appointed to encourage the vaccine-uptake campaign. Instead, [Anthony Fauci](https://time.com/5960529/anthony-fauci-profile/) has been appearing on news outlets, Kamala Harris has been [lead](https://www.latimes.com/politics/story/2021-02-25/harris-leads-effort-to-coax-blacks-to-take-vaccines-but-distrust-remains-high)[ing](https://www.latimes.com/politics/story/2021-02-25/harris-leads-effort-to-coax-blacks-to-take-vaccines-but-distrust-remains-high)[ the charge](https://www.latimes.com/politics/story/2021-02-25/harris-leads-effort-to-coax-blacks-to-take-vaccines-but-distrust-remains-high) in Black communities, and the Administration even deployed National Institutes of Health director [Francis Collins](https://time.com/5935658/nih-director-francis-collins-interview/) to engage the white, conservative and Christian base. We wouldn’t all buy an iPhone if the Vice President told us to, and vaccines are no different. The American people do not like “elites,” and at a time when scientists and politicians stand side-by-side, public-health officials like Fauci suffer from the same distrust as politicians: Only [43% of Americans](https://review.chicagobooth.edu/behavioral-science/2020/article/downfall-and-possible-salvation-expertise) say they would take the vaccine if Dr Fauci or the Centers for Disease Control told them to. The government should learn from a young advertising executive named Alan Pottasch who, in 1961, when Coke was outselling Pepsi by 6 to 1, advised Pepsi to “stop talking about the product and start talking about the user.” The campaign he built didn’t talk about bubbles and flavor. Instead, it tapped into the desires of the individualistic young people who were forming their identity in the effervescent ‘60s. The Pepsi Generation campaign was born; Pepsi not only clawed back market share from Coke, they changed the rules of the game. Brands stopped selling customers better features, they started selling their customers better versions of themselves. **_Read more:_**[_Michael Lewis Found the People Who Should Have Been in Charge During the Pandemic_](https://time.com/6039425/michael-lewis-the-premonition-covid-19/) And herein lies the problem. The American people do not want to be lectured about shots, they want to be inspired about their lives. Humans do not make decisions based on reason and logic (vaccine efficacy rates, incidence of [side effects](https://time.com/5957222/covid-vaccine-side-effects/), FDA emergency authorization). They make decisions through a messy lens of gut feelings, emotions and biases. Where is the emotion? Where is the storytelling? Where is the evocation of patriotism? The vaccine drive is an opportunity for America to take its self-prescribed mantle as “leader of the free world” and apply it to the vaccine. Getting the shot should be about freedom, about strengthening America, about triumphing over the enemy – not about doing what you are told by Harris or Fauci. Pepsi was able to convince a generation that freedom could be found in an unhealthy drink. Yet the vaccine, which actually grants personal and national freedom, can’t be given away for free? With America’s budget and brains, we can surely do better. It’s not that all of America is short of ideas — just the federal government. State governments are using [vaccine lotteries](https://time.com/6048214/vaccine-lottery-1-million-dollars-ohio/), paying people to get vaccinated and creating [consumer incentives](https://time.com/6046238/covid-19-vaccine-incentives/). But that isn’t happening at the national level – and this needs to be a national effort. At the same time, we should be congratulating and validating the early adopters, so they don’t feel that by incentivizing later adopters we are rewarding “bad behavior.” The government assumed the vaccine would sell itself. It isn’t. It’s time for a course correction. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"OpinionNewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/6053504/vaccination-rate-marketing/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/6053504/vaccination-rate-marketing/"},"headline":"The U.S. Has Failed to Persuade Americans to Get Vaccines. 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