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It's Up to You (COVID-19 Vaccine Education Initiative)

Also: COVID-19 Vaccine Education Initiative · Es tu decisión

“It's Up to You”

Ad Council and COVID Collaborative national COVID-19 vaccine education campaign unveiled February 25, 2021, created with the CDC and backed by more than 300 brands, media companies and community organizations. Aimed at the roughly 40% of Americans undecided about vaccination, it directed people to GetVaccineAnswers.org.

Years
2021
Country
United States
Topic
Infectious diseaseVaccination
Asks people to
Seek helpStart
Strategy
Self efficacyTestimonial
Channel
InfluencerOutdoorRadioSocial (organic)Social (paid)TV
Audience
AdultsGeneral public
Vaccine-undecided adults, with tailored work for Black, Hispanic, rural, faith and other communities.

Evidence

Quasi-experimentalPositive

Johns Hopkins/Cuebiq Bayesian spatiotemporal model across 3,104 US counties (Mar-Aug 2021) found a significant positive association between county-level campaign exposure (from ~17 million opted-in mobile devices) and vaccine uptake; full reach was estimated to raise weekly vaccination rate by 2.2% (95% UI 2.0-2.4%) versus no campaign. Exposure-response design with demographic and political controls; not randomized.

Sponsor (who paid)

  • Ad Council Ad Council (pro bono), campaign producer
  • COVID Collaborative NGO, partner/sponsor
  • Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Federal government, partner

Credits (who made it)

Sources

  1. Li Q et al. Using Location Intelligence to Evaluate the COVID-19 Vaccination Campaign in the United States: Spatiotemporal Big Data Analysis. JMIR Public Health Surveill 2023;9:e39166 evaluation · 2023 · DOI 10.2196/39166 · PMID 36626835
  2. The Ad Council and COVID Collaborative reveal 'It's Up To You' campaigns (dentsu) news · 2021
  3. Ad Council's latest seeks to educate on importance of Covid-19 vaccination (The Drum) news · 2021
  4. 'It's up to you': Sweeping ad campaign will encourage vaccinations (NBC News) news · 2021

Research notes

endYear not established (initiative wound down after 2022-23; confirm). Credits checked 2026-10-22 against fetched pages: Pereira O'Dell, JOY Collective, Alma, BeenThereDoneThat (Ad Council / COVID Collaborative press release of 25 Feb 2021 as posted on pereiraodell.com: Pereira O'Dell developed the platform pro bono; JOY Collective adapted it for Black communities; Alma customized it as 'De Ti Depende' for Hispanic communities; BeenThereDoneThat developed the strategic framework; The Drum's 25 Feb 2021 article, read via Wayback, also names Joy Collective); JHU/Cuebiq (PubMed record of the JMIR 2023 paper: Johns Hopkins and Cuebiq affiliations, evaluates 'It's Up to You'). Corrected 2026-10-22: added Alma; agency credits now cite the press release instead of The Drum (blocked by a bot check). Many additional agencies and media partners contributed; only the core platform credits are listed. The evaluation was co-authored with Cuebiq, the exposure-measurement vendor. Added 2026-10-22 from fetched pages: Dentsu Health (pro bono consumer insights and national media strategy, dentsu release) and Deutsch LA (2021 young-adult PSAs, Ad Council release). Links (#82) checked 2026-10-23: Ad Council pages from the Wayback Machine (adcouncil.org's old campaign pages), the Our History timeline or its case studies; dead campaign sites point to a Wayback copy from the campaign years.

Record cases/its-up-to-you.json, updated 2026-10-23· Link to this campaign