The federal government’s new COVID-19 vaccine awareness adverts are under fire – with one Perth-based agency labelling them “boring” – and a waste of time.

The main advert to run in Western Australia features anonymous arms and tells Aussies to “arm yourself against COVID-19”.

Brand Agency Perth’s director Hannah Muirhead told Perth LIVE’s Oliver Peterson, it misses the mark.

“You really can’t bore people into compliance,” she said.

“It’s good that they’ve taken this approach of arms, I think what they’re trying to do here is social norming, which is a really powerful way to influence behaviour.

“Which basically says that ultimately humans are social creatures, we like to follow the herd and we like to fit in – even if we don’t think we do – and what we need to show is people doing the right thing and this ad is clearly trying to do that, but it’s lacking that humanity.

“Showing people’s arms with bandaids on – it doesn’t show people’s faces, it doesn’t show the interactions, it doesn’t show the benefit of us being able to hug our loved ones again and reconnect.”

The other advert – to be predominantly used in locked-down New South Wales – features a young woman gasping for air in a hospital bed – targeting an age group which is largely ineligible for the jab.

“It seems to me, to be a bit of a waste of money, I mean there’s probably better approaches they could have taken,” Muirhead said.

Press PLAY to hear Hannah Muirhead’s full reaction to the campaign