The City of Toronto deleted a tweet and video on Tuesday containing an advertisement for COVID-19 vaccines for infants and young children between the ages of six months and 12 years.
Andrew Lawton, a journalist with True North, shared the deleted video – which is part of a series of similarly themed video advertisements – on his Twitter profile.
The advertisements frame the COVID-19 vaccines as liberating mechanisms allowing children to live freely and join their friends and peers.
One advertisement features a child actress asking her mother, “Hey, mom, can I go outside and play with my friends?”
The actress portraying the child’s mother responds, “No, honey. There’s still something going around.”
The girl then despondently looks out a window as her friends play together. A message displayed on the commercial reads “Kids should be out there. Not in here.”
The City of Toronto’s official Twitter profile shared the following message, “The City removed a tweet and video from earlier today. We always strive to ensure clear understanding, especially about vaccinations, and will work to ensure greater clarity in the future.”
Lawton reported, “After the video was widely panned on Twitter for implying unvaccinated children should be kept away from their friends, the City of Toronto deleted a tweet with the video and published a retraction, though not an apology.”
When asked for comment on the video’s deletion, City of Toronto spokesperson Brad Ross wrote:
The pandemic has negatively impacted children in many different ways. The video created was intended to highlight the negative impact it has had on children and drive home the benefits of vaccine, as vaccination remains the most effective way to protect our children, families, communities and ourselves against the serious effects of COVID-19.
Ross added that the video was removed “to better address the core message of children being eligible to be vaccinated against COVID-19.”
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