Covid-19 superhero campaign taken down

Singapore's Covid-19-themed superhero team has beaten a hasty retreat before a swelling of negative public opinion, as the Gov.sg platform removed the Virus Vanguard campaign from its website and Facebook page just a day after launching it on Sunday.

Public communications and marketing experts said the campaign could have hit a raw nerve where others did not owing to a perfect storm of events.

The fictional five-member superhero team is the product of a collaboration between Gov.sg and local artist community group Band of Doodlers (BOD), and comprises Dr Disinfector, Fake News Buster, Must Always Walk Alone (Mawa) Man, Circuit Breaker and Care-leh Dee.

Public relations consultant and trainer K. Bhavani said the campaign's tone could have been jarring to members of the public used to relying on Gov.sg's platforms for the daily Covid-19 updates and reminders. "A lot of people rely on the updates and (Gov.sg) has become a very formal channel. So if they suddenly wanted to do something different, perhaps the audience could not accept it," she said.

"We have been seeing record numbers of cases for the past few days, and it might not have been the right time to take a lighter approach."

Singapore reported a daily high of 1,426 new cases on Monday, after 596 and 942 new cases on Sunday and Saturday respectively.

The Government has adopted a firm and solemn tone for the most part during the Covid-19 pandemic in its communications to the public, but there have been light-hearted public service announcements, such as a rap by beloved sitcom character Phua Chu Kang.

In February, the Ministry of Education launched the Soaper 5, five superhero mascots encouraging children to practise good hygiene.

An unofficial tongue-in-cheek community portal called I Am A CCB (Community Circuit Breaker) was also launched earlier this month and went viral online.

"We wanted to provide some form of entertainment... and the tongue-in-cheek approach worked for us because it helped distract our community from the mundanity of the circuit breaker routine," said Mr Jeff Cheong, deputy president of DDB Group Singapore, the creative and technology agency behind I Am A CCB. "I think using comics as a genre is a good attempt... (but) I would have made the characters more local and relatable to our culture so we can all have a little laugh at ourselves."

Of the five Virus Vanguard characters, Mawa Man was singled out by netizens for the most criticism. The social distancing-inspired character is supposed to be a fanatical fan of the Manchester United football club, with his name being a jibe at rival club Liverpool's "You'll Never Walk Alone" anthem.

In a Facebook post yesterday, Virus Vanguard creator and BOD founder Mas Shafreen apologised for characters that came across as insensitive and asked for BOD not to be held collectively responsible for the campaign.

He also acknowledged criticism of Mawa Man and said the character was "more about how we should practise safe distancing, but the aim is that he will realise that it takes all of us, regardless of which team we support, to pull through this together". "I am sorry for the trouble caused and I hope local artists can still be supported with creative projects," he wrote.

Social media agency Goodstuph founder Pat Law said the campaign may have made a misstep in appearing to take sides in a football rivalry. "Trash-talking between fans of rival clubs is commonplace, but perhaps it isn't a behaviour the Government should get involved in," she said.

"But I do respect how (Mr Shafreen) has taken ownership for his work to protect the BOD community like a true leader."