How the State tries to sensitize young people to the health crisis

The young people had in particular been shown the fingers for gatherings at the time of the Music Festival.

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• Gabriel Attal, the government spokesperson, participates every week in a live on Instagram with an influencer to discuss the news related to the health crisis.

• "We need influencers, young people who talk to other young people, pass these messages, relay them",

  explains Gabriel Attal.

• “Just being on social media is not enough to talk to young people.

  It would be more useful to master the codes of the Internet, rather than to call upon influencers ”, explains

  Philippe Moreau-Chevrolet, lecturer in political communication at Sciences Po.

Creation of a Twitch account, live Instagram with influencers, program on Fun Radio or at Cyril Hanouna ... Gabriel Attal, the government spokesperson, has invested in recent weeks the privileged information channels of young people to try to sensitize them to the health crisis.

“There was a request from the Elysee Palace, from the President of the Republic, to mobilize the government“ to talk ”to young people.

Gabriel Attal - by his function and by his age - was commissioned to communicate directly with them in order to do pedagogy, and to make them responsible ”, explains to

the entourage of the Secretary of State and spokesperson of the government.

Since September, attacks against young people, accused of spreading the Covid-19 virus, have been increasing.

“Some say young people don't play by the rules - throwing parties - and they are responsible for the second wave.

For the Elysee, it is not acceptable to point the finger at part of the population ”, adds the spokesperson's office.

However, this weekend again, an illegal clandestine party brought together more than 300 people in Val-de-Marne, in total disregard for health rules.

One of the revelers has also tested positive for Covid-19.

For the government, "it is therefore urgent today to act to empower young people".

Whether you have 50, 100 or 1 million subscribers on your social networks, your voice, your relay can save lives.

Help us to call everyone to responsibility: we will only overcome this 2nd wave together!

- Emmanuel Macron (@EmmanuelMacron) October 23, 2020

"We need influencers to pass on these messages, to relay"

To address this part of the population, the youngest of the government has therefore decided to invest all the major platforms popular with young people.

“We tried to adopt a different communication strategy vis-à-vis this audience.

Gabriel Attal has created a Twitch account, he also has his YouTube channel, Twitter and Facebook accounts, and he has very pro-active communication via his Instagram account, ”explains his entourage.

The Secretary of State indeed regularly organizes lives on Instagram with his community, during his travels, but also to answer questions from Internet users.

It was last year, I was discovering Twitch.

Now it's time to start streaming!

Appointment from Wednesday, 6.30 p.m., live from the Élysée Palace, for a regular meeting of debate.

👉 To not miss anything, subscribe: https://t.co/8WBEsgV8ZZ https://t.co/6aLRwdK3Xe

- Gabriel Attal (@GabrielAttal) October 25, 2020

To communicate with young people, the government spokesperson also decided to turn to influencers, with hundreds of thousands of subscribers.

"We need influencers, young people who talk to other young people, pass these messages, relay them",

Gabriel Attal had launched, during a special program in October of 

the program of Cyril Hanouna on C8.

The spokesperson also submitted the idea of ​​a weekly post-Council of Ministers conference hosted by stars from social networks [EnjoyPhoenix, Paola Locatelli, Just Riadh…] “The idea was to have an exchange monthly breakout with recognized YouTubers and Instagramers ”.

But the announcement of the reconfinement has changed the situation.

The idea was not abandoned, but it was finally replaced "by lives organized every Sunday with an influencer on Instagram".

"It is not enough to be on social networks to speak to young people"

It is the most followed French YouTuber in France, Marie Lopez, alias EnjoyPhoenix who has suffered the plasters of these weekly meetings.

The influencer, known for her beauty tutorials, hosted on Sunday November 1 a live of nearly an hour with Gabriel Attal, focused on the health crisis.

A direct in the form of questions and answers, which has been strongly criticized by Internet users.

"It would make sense for influencers to engage in a public anti-Covid campaign [to defend the health system, promote barrier gestures ...] But organize this kind of communication operation - a kind of government after-sales service - above all risk of attracting trolls and haters.

There is a difference between sending a message and carrying out operations à la "Michel Drucker", "explains

Philippe Moreau-Chevrolet, professor of political communication at Sciences Po

, to

.

“Just being on social media is not enough to talk to young people.

It would be more useful to master the codes of the Internet, rather than using influencers as an entry point to address young people.

We get the impression that the government is behaving like an old brand that would like to become "trendy".

But that's not how it works.

If you don't have a taste for popular culture, and a natural appetite for networks, it shows right away, and it causes rejection.

You cannot pretend on social networks, you have to invest totally or not at all, ”adds the expert in political communication.

A communication strategy "inspired" by the United States

This is not the first time that influencers have taken part in government communication.

Sports YouTuber TiboInShape had already promoted the National Universal Service (SNU) in 2019 in a video with Gabriel Attal.

Influencers Sundy Jules and “Enzo, Shut Up” had also praised the merits in their Instagram stories.

And last February, EnjoyPhoenix dedicated an episode of its series “A day with…” to Brune Poirson, Secretary of State to the Minister for the Ecological and Inclusive Transition.

“The difference today is that the influencers we work with are not paid.

It's a real civic initiative on their part, ”said Gabriel Attal's entourage.

Calling on influencers has therefore become a real government communication strategy.

“We draw a lot of inspiration from what is done in the United States, and in particular from what the elected Democrat in Congress, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

Three quarters of the campaigns are done there on social networks, ”says the spokesperson's office.

Today there is still some way to go to get there in France.

“Boris Johnson in Great Britain, Matteo Salvini in Italy and Donald Trump in the United States know how to use the language of social networks, and speak to the youngest.

French politicians - in all objectivity - do not know how to do it.

They still consider digital culture, that of young people, as a subculture.

Yet today, that's where everything happens, ”says Philippe Moreau-Chevrolet.

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