Bad marketing of the month comes from South Dakota vaccine advocates:
As part of National Immunization Awareness Month, the nonprofit Immunize South Dakota and the state’s American Academy of Pediatrics chapter have launched a campaign called “Let’s Just Talk About It” [Laura Hatch, “South Dakota Health Groups Launch Vaccine Campaign as Measles Vaccination Rate Falls Below 90 Percent,” Northern Plains News, 2026.08.14].
Widespread misinformation peddled by some of the highest officials in the nation is causing a public health crisis:
Immunization rates in South Dakota have declined in recent years. The state’s health department reported the measles vaccination rate was just under 90% last year, a 5% decline since 2020.
Measles cases are increasing, with 11 cases so far this year. South Dakota had 16 cases for all of last year. South Dakota reflects what is happening nationally, with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reporting nearly 2,500 measles cases so far this year, more than the nearly 2,300 cases reported for all of 2025 [Hatch, 2026.08.14].
…and the experts with the facts say, “Let’s Just Talk About It”?!
That slogan is a complete failure. It doesn’t grab attention. It doesn’t pitch the real action necessary to solve the real problem. It suggests “talk” is the only desired action. And the slogan doesn’t even mention what we need to talk about. Slap “Let’s Just Talk About It” on a poster, and passersby are left clueless as to the topic of the desired talk. Blast that out in an e-mail subject line, and I just hit Junk.
I can think of many more appropriate and effective slogans, like “Get Your Shots!”
Don’t just talk about it. Lead with urgency. Lead with an unabashed declaration of what we have to do to save kids’ lives from Trumpist quackery: Get Your Shots!