• Emmanuel Macron posted a video on Instagram and TikTok on Monday in which he invites the French to send him any questions they have about vaccination.

    The Head of State is committed to responding clearly and directly.

  • From the choice of networks, to the shooting, through his dress code and his language, everything in this video contrasts with the usual official speeches of the Presidents of the Republic.

  • Behind this relaxed effect hides a real political communication strategy targeting worried, suspicious French people or against vaccination against the coronavirus.

Faced with the growing number of demonstrators against the health pass and the reluctance of some French people to be vaccinated against the Coronavirus, Emmanuel Macron is changing his strategy. After a very solemn speech in mid-July announcing the extension of the health pass, the President of the Republic on Monday abandoned the classic codes of political discourse and chose to address the French like no one before him. In a T-shirt, the camera held at arm's length, the Head of State shot a short selfie video in which he invites the French to ask him all their questions about the Covid-19 vaccination. He undertakes to respond to them clearly and directly. Posted on Instagram and TikTok, the post sparked a lot of reactions.

A rather successful com 'according to Alexandre Eyries, HDR research professor, in information and communication science at the University of Burgundy and author of the books

La communication politique 3.0 (University of Dijon)

and

Anthropolitweet (Ed. Iste)

.

He is neither an epidemiologist nor a doctor, but offers the French to answer their questions about the vaccine.

What image does Emmanuel Macron want to give?

Since the start of the health crisis, leaders have been sailing on sight and there have been a lot of communication hiccups. There, there is a desire to embody the presidential posture and to reassure the French in the face of fake news and attempts at disinformation that are circulating. He is neither a doctor nor an epidemiologist, but he is the head of state and he wants to show that he is the captain on board. The vaccine strategy was decided in agreement with the Scientific Council but it has the responsibility, whatever the cost.

He wants to clarify a number of things, fight misconceptions and show that vaccination is the only way out of this health nightmare.

It is important that it is the Head of State who embodies this public speaking and this form of broken stick conversation with the French, rather than the Prime Minister or the Minister of Health.

The President's message is short, simple.

He even goes back to replace the expression "duly vaccinated" by "completely vaccinated".

What's the strategy here?

Today, people of all professions and all social classes do not understand the ins and outs of the transmission of the virus, its dangerousness and whether or not to be vaccinated.

When we say Messenger RNA vaccine, a lot of people don't know what it is.

The more you speak technocrat, the more risk you have of losing people.

Emmanuel Macron is making an effort to simplify the vocabulary, because in situations where there is a lot of misinformation, you have to go back to simple words to convince people of the merits of his words.

Using strong and complicated vocabulary to talk about serious things is not a good idea.

You have to speak true, speak "direct" as he says in the video.

Why go through social networks and more particularly Instagram?

Since the start of his mandate, Emmanuel Macron has shown a certain appetite for this exercise of questions and answers and direct exchange with the French. In the street, when traveling or during the Great Debate, for example. Social networks make it possible to eliminate intermediaries. He does not go through journalists, his cabinet directors or his advisers: he responds directly to citizens. There is an effect of transparency and also of proximity with the people, while Emmanuel Macron is often considered as Jupiterian and at a good distance from the French. He adopts a communication posture based on openness, benevolence, active listening. He puts himself at the service of the French, at their disposal.

Networks are also the place for heated discussions about vaccination.

The choice of Instagram is very good, compared for example to the direct on Facebook Live of Nicolas Sarkozy without much success.

Instagram is the network for 30-40 year olds, with CSP + and average.

They are the ones who are in these debates and who are able to popularize certain messages and be opinion leaders.

Instagram also lends itself very well to the "eye to eye" format, we are on the tone of confidence almost as if we were sitting with Emmanuel Macron at the table, chatting.

Why play the card of the ultra-relaxed Head of State, face cam, in a T-shirt?

Using the video format [on Instagram and TikTok] shows a desire to reach out to a younger audience and it's pretty standard with him, like when he did the YouTube video with McFly and Carlito.

By filming himself at arm's length, in a room that resonates, from his vacation spot, he avoids falling into the mistakes that were made by François Hollande when he made this highly publicized visit to a great- mother in the Paris region.

It didn't work because we could see the strings, it was scripted and there was no spontaneity.

Very often Emmanuel Macron's speeches are framed, prepared upstream with a lot of attention paid to the decor, the staging, the framing, the editing or the lighting.

There, there is no staging effort in political speech.

Regarding his dress, we have often seen him with the shirt sleeves rolled up, without the tie and with the jacket on the shoulder… But in a T-shirt to my knowledge, this is the first time!

He shows that like all French people, he is on vacation and that he is releasing the dress code.

This further accentuates the effect of proximity, transparency and accessibility.

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Politics

Vaccination: Emmanuel Macron invites the French to ask him questions on Instagram and TikTok

  • Vaccine

  • Covid 19

  • Coronavirus

  • TikTok

  • Anti-covid vaccine

  • Emmanuel Macron

  • Instagram