Throughout the Covid event the UK Government, in keeping with many other countries, drew on behavioural-science interventions – often referred to as ‘nudges’ – to strengthen their public-health communications, and thereby increase compliance with the pandemic restrictions and subsequent vaccine roll-out. These psychological methods of persuasion often operate below people’s conscious awareness, and frequently rely on inflating emotional discomfort to change behaviour. In particular, the state’s often-covert deployment of fear inflation, guilt/shame and peer pressure/scapegoating to strengthen the Covid communications strategy has evoked ethical concerns.

Focusing on the controversial ‘Look them in the eyes’ messaging campaign, this paper presents a critical analysis that:

• (1) identifies the behavioural scientists, and other key actors, responsible for the tone and content of the materials used in this campaign;
• (2) reveals the rationales offered by the creators to justify the use of the emotionally disturbing advertisements; and
• (3) confirms that the harrowing messages and videos were developed without any ethical oversight.

“State-sponsored nudging, devoid of ethical oversight, is now impacting on all aspects of our lives. As things stand, we can expect the same tone and content in government communications the next time our political leaders choose to declare a ‘global crisis’, whether it be in regards to health, climate, pollution or some other assumed world-wide threat.”