Coronavirus: Taxpayers fund Scott Morrison’s $75m Covid recovery ad blitz

The messaging splurge will spruik federal programs for vaccines, tax cuts, skills training, wage subsidies, mental health, domestic violence, infrastructure and safe travel.

The campaign from Scott Morrison’s government could use high-profile Australians to achieve broad uptake of vaccines. Picture: Gary Ramage

The Morrison government has unleashed a $75m taxpayer-funded summer advertising blitz to propagate its COVID-19 health and economic messaging.

The messaging splurge will spruik federal programs for vaccines, tax cuts, skills training, wage subsidies, mental health, domestic violence, infrastructure and safe travel.

A $23.9m public information blockbuster for COVID-19 vac­cines will run ahead of the immunisation rollout, which is expected to begin in March.

Health officials said the campaign could use high-profile Australians for the reach necessary to achieve broad uptake of vaccines.

Five former prime ministers, including John Howard and Julia Gillard, have vowed to get vaccinated in public as soon as the ­vaccine is available.

In the US, marketers have turned to infectious diseases expert Anthony Fauci and leading doctors to promote public awareness of COVID-19 vaccines and could expand the campaign to include social media influencers.

In Britain, footballer Marcus Rashford and members of the royal family have been identified as candidates to front vaccine communications.

“The campaign is currently in development to determine the most effective way to deliver the messaging to Australians,” a Health Department spokesman said. “This may include using high-profile people if that supports the important message.

“Communication will help ensure confidence in the rigour of Australia’s approval process and encourage uptake of the vaccine when the time comes,” he said.

Australia has entered into four separate supply agreements for COVID-19 vaccines.

The second-wave of pandemic media campaigns was launched after the October budget and will wash over the holiday period and beyond.

During a bleak year for the ­advertising industry, campaigns by three levels of government have put a floor under agency revenues. A new $13.8m phase of COVID-19 advertising is planned to run until late March.

Julia Gillard. Picture: AAP

John Howard. Picture: Getty Images

The Health Department spokesman said this was an ­extension of campaign activity that ran throughout the year to encourage Australians “to maintain ­COVIDSafe behaviours”.

It follows the launch of a concurrent $8.3m mental health advertising initiative that was developed in quick time by BMF Advertising at a creative contract cost of $1m.

Coronavirus public information campaigns have dominated media spending this year, with good hygiene, importance of physical distancing, mental health support, restrictions on movement, and how people can assist in stopping virus spread the key messages.

The government spent $7m to promote take up of the COVIDSafe app.

According to a spokesman for Government Services Minister Stuart Robert, in NSW the tool was able to identify 17 close contacts that were not identified by manual contact tracing.

Treasury’s $15m Our Comeback campaign has been running on broadcast, print and digital channels to promote Josh Frydenberg’s $251bn direct stimulus spending, including the JobKeeper payment, a new hiring credit for employers and tax breaks for investment. The media spend alone, through Mediabrands Australia, has been disclosed at a contract value of $13.2m.

As well, the Department of Education, Skills and Employment has kicked off a $5.8m media campaign for the JobTrainer program, aimed at school leavers and young jobseekers, which is contracted to run until the end of January.

The Department of Social Services is spending $6.8m to extend its domestic violence support services advertising until the end of January, bringing the total media cost of the campaign to $21.4m.

A new phase of the Building Our Future campaign by the Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Communications is expected to cost $2m.

An $880,000 pandemic-­related SmartTraveller campaign to run over the summer was launched in late October by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.

The advertising binge comes after Canberra racked up $160.1m in media expenses alone in 2019-20.

According to the Department of Finance, $144.6m was spent on campaigns, while $15.6m was spent on non-campaign media, such as employment advertising.

In the previous financial year, which covered the lead-up to the May 2019 federal election, the ­Coalition spent $174.1m.

Development costs, such as market research, design, creative work and monitoring can add another one-third to the cost of major government campaigns.

According to Treasury, Melbourne agency TBWA was paid $1.2m to come up with the Our Comeback slogan that has been a steady backbeat to the Coalition’s talking points in recent months.

The Our Comeback campaign follows $40m in Treasury advertising media contracts let this year, including actual spending of $20m before June 30 on initi­atives known as the Coronavirus Economic Response and COVID-Safe.

Both campaigns were exempted from scrutiny by an independent panel that vets campaigns before they are launched to guard against misuse of funds for political advertising.