Philadelphia Flyers Launch 'Take Your Shot' Campaign To Help Encourage COVID-19 Vaccinations
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- The Philadelphia Flyers are throwing their sticks into the ring by helping people get their COVID-19 vaccinations, and even Gritty is getting in on the action.
"I think what we're seeing is the people most interested in the vaccine have stepped up and gotten it," Penn Medicine CMO Dr. P.J. Brennan said.
Brennan says the hard part is now overcoming vaccine hesitancy.
To help do that, enter in the largest, orangey-ist, Grittiest partner this side of the Schuylkill.
"When we were asked, we were willing to answer the call," Philadelphia Flyers President Valerie Camillo said.
The Flyers say they were approached by Gov. Tom Wolf and Mayor Jim Kenney to leverage their platform in the community to help get more people vaccinated. In doing so, the Take Your Shot campaign was launched.
In doing so, they're the first NHL franchise to release a public service announcement related to COVID-19.
"We'll run that on TV and on social media to broadcast that out as widely as possible," Camillo said. "And we'll also be targeting communities of color as well."
The inequality of distribution is at the heart of this campaign, they say, working closely with Penn Medicine and the Black Doctors COVID-19 Consortium to ensure no one is left out.
The video features Flyers players, head coach Alain Vigneault, local doctors and, of course, Gritty, with its own sticker.
Players and his-Grittness will also be present at vaccination sites.
"We're eager to do this. I think there's a softening of demand, we're seeing that as we schedule vaccine events," Brennan said. "We're seeing no-show rates higher than we did earlier in the pandemic."
"That's the beauty and power of the platform and that's the Flyers," Camillo said. "I think the governor and the mayor recognize it's constantly on our minds, how can we leverage that to do good?"