Read this: Remembering when Star Wars did an immunization PSA
In 2021, you’d have to be an idiot and/or an asshole not to recognize the importance of vaccines. But back in the late 1970s, President Jimmy Carter’s administration was faced with the question of how to promote immunization to an America where too many still contracted illnesses like measles and whooping cough. The answer the government came up with was a campaign featuring the galaxy’s most trustworthy public figures: C-3PO and R2-D2.
In a new oral history, Mel Magazine looked back at a time when the Star Wars machine took a break from filming ill-advised spin-offs and licensing out characters for merchandising opportunities so they could be put to work saving our species’ lowly meat bodies from preventable diseases. The article features interviews with figures involved with the campaign, like the U.S. National Immunization Program’s former director, who explains the difficulties of educating America on the importance of measles vaccines—especially for children—following a resurgence of the disease. It also includes quotes from Peter Shillingford, would go on to direct a commercial meant to help solve that problem following his work on Star Wars: Episode IV—A New Hope’s making-of documentary.
