hooked. I was compelled. I had no other choice than I had to do this. And so instead of relaxing during my vacation over the holidays, I found myself working on this campaign for two straight weeks in December because I had no choice. I had to do this. And for me, doing something is expressed through advertising."

Like any advertising campaign, Ritcherson did research on his target population with the purpose of developing messaging that would reach and persuade people to get vaccinated. He found that his target population fell into three categories.

“The first set of people are ‘Ready, Set, Go,’ Ritcherson said. “They are already convinced. They don’t need any other encouragement. They just need to know where and when they sign up to get vaccinated.”

The second group wasn’t sure what to do. They had reservations, but hadn’t made up their minds one way or the other.

“Last year, all of the messages encouraging people to get vaccinated were trying to address those who were hesitant,” Ritcherson said. “As the year progressed, I had to stay on top of things because the message, at times, would change in that one subset of those who were hesitant were those who were, in a sense, sitting on the fence. They wanted to wait and see what happened because they thought the vaccine was developed too quickly or the vaccine was going to give them COVID-19 or the vaccine is going to implant a chip in them. There was all that kind of stuff going around and so people wanted to wait and see. And so I developed ads that said, ‘Wait and See Has Come and Gone. Take the Shot.’”

The third group, a still rather large subset of the American people, were resistant. They began to have harden attitudes about the vaccination and became more recalcitrant.

“It has gone from hesitancy to being resistant to now being defiant,” Ritcherson said. “And so I’ve been doing the research to develop messages in 2022 to talk to those who are now resistant while still keeping up the effort to encourage those who are hesitant to still get them to get that first shot, that second shot and the booster shot, but now focus on those who are resistant. That will be my focus for 2022. I want to talk with those who are in the resistant group. One ad I’ve already developed is some restaurants and theaters are requiring proof of vaccination before you can get through the door. Everyone has not done that, but some have. And based on the way that the COVID-19 cases are going, that could increase. There could be more restaurants, theaters and indoor sporting events that do not want to go back to no fans in the stands. But things could be heading towards proof of vaccination. There was an ad that was created that said, ‘No Shirt, No Shoes, No Shot, No Service.’ In my campaign throughout the year, I need to keep up with what’s going on and snapshots of what attitudes are at the time. That concept will be continued through 2022 because COVID-19 is continuing in 2022. Therefore I must continue too.”

Ritcherson is planning to continue his campaign in 2022, doing what he can do to bring an end to the pandemic. As the pandemic progressed in 2021, Ritcherson observed one more group come into view.

“When I mentioned the hesitant, resistant, the defiant, I left off one, the Anti-Vaxxer,’” Ritcherson said. “That is totally disturbing, to put out false information. I don’t understand that at all. In my research in trying to get into other people’s heads, I’m trying to do that now with anti-vaxxers. So far, I’ve not been able to understand that mentality. I’m not going to criticize anyone. This is the United States. We can all express our views. But to put out false information, I don’t understand that all, but I’m going to try to in order to do what I can do to combat that.”

Ritcherson also wants to work to get the most vulnerable vaccinated: children. While many advertising campaigns reach parents through their children, Ritcherson will be working to reach the children through their parents.

“Part of my 2022 campaign is to focus on eligible-aged kids,” Ritcherson said. “It means their parents make the decision for their minor children. Our messaging will be going out to encourage parents to allow their kids who are eligible to get vaccinated. If the parents aren’t vaccinated and are opposed to being vaccinated, chances are, their children are not going to get vaccinated. And that could cause long-term problems.”

Now is not the time to relax with the Omicron variant spreading rapidly through the country. Like all other communities, Madison/Dane County is experiencing Omicron’s scourge.

“The current data shows that Wisconsin has passed the million number of cases mark,” Ritcherson said. “New cases are over 8,000 per day. There is a 24 percent positivity test rate. In Wisconsin, we are at about 58 percent of vaccination rate. In Dane County, we are at about 76 percent. But according to today’s Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, the Wisconsin Hospital Association is saying that right now, we are experiencing the highest number of intensive care patients ever. We’re going in the wrong direction.”

Ritcherson will not give up until Madison/Dane County and the nation returns to some resemblance of normal when the first thing that people think about when leaving their homes is possibly catching COVID-19.

“We do not want to go backwards,” Ritcherson emphasized. “We do not want to have our schools shut down. We don’t want to have no more live performances. We don’t want the movie theaters to shut down. We want fans in the stands at sporting events. But we seem to be headed back that way. But this is preventable. This is preventable if we all take a bigger view than just ourselves. We all have to band together to get this under control.”

The COVID-19 pandemic needs all hands on deck. No one is naturally immune from this contagious and often deadly virus. It is only a community united that will defeat the COVID-19 virus. And Rod Ritcherson is doing what he can with what he knows best to create the united front against COVID-19.