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Joe Rogan fooled by satirical Australian vaccine ‘propaganda’

Joe Rogan appeared to mistake a satirical Gruen ad for government propaganda.

Joe Rogan appeared to mistake a satirical Gruen ad for government propaganda. Photo: TND

US podcasting giant Joe Rogan has been left red-faced after mistaking a satirical ad for Australian “propaganda” on social media.

On Tuesday morning (Australian time), Rogan doubled down on his earlier claims that Australia is a “police state”, sharing a video watermarked Gruen with his 6.1 million Facebook followers.

“Not only has Australia had the worst reaction to the pandemic with dystopian, police-state measures that are truly inconceivable to the rest of the civilised world, but they also have the absolute dumbest propaganda,” Rogan wrote.

Far from official propaganda, the clip was a satirical ad created for The Pitch – a regular segment on ABC show Gruen starring comedian Wil Anderson.

The Pitch asked advertising companies to create vaccine ads that would be more effective than the Australian government’s ‘Arm Yourself’ campaign.

In the ad created by Paper Moose, a man appears to suffer an allergic reaction and responds to attempts to save his life by questioning the brand of EpiPen being used.

“What’s in it?” the man gasps, while visibly struggling to breathe.

When told it is medicine, he asks how long it has been researched and what the statistics are from Europe.

When his rescuer reveals she doesn’t know the answer, but suggests he could die without it, he asks: “What does Joe Rogan say?”

“Call Joe,” he pleads with his dying breath.

The takeaway message from the ad, which only aired on the TV show it was created for, was to stop questioning the science around COVID-19 vaccines.

“We don’t question the science when our lives depend on it, so why question it when millions of lives depend on it?” a voiceover asks.

“Science has our backs. Get the vax.”

Rogan soon realised his mistake, adding an edit within two hours of posting the clip.

“EDIT: Apparently this is not a real ad. It’s from a satirical show”, he wrote.

The Joe Rogan Experience is one of Australia’s most downloaded podcasts, ranking third on Spotify – where it is exclusively broadcast.

As previously reported by The New Daily, Rogan has added fuel to a media frenzy and protest movement in the US, with Americans objecting to Australia’s lockdowns.

The comedian, who contracted COVID-19 in September, has often lashed Australia’s pandemic response and has called the nation a “police state”.

He has also been criticised for promoting anti-vaccination views, telling listeners in April that healthy people who exercise and eat well don’t need to “worry about” getting the jab, according to News.com.au.

At the time, he responded to backlash by saying he was “not a doctor”.

Will Anderson retweeted a reaction to the mistake which sledged Rogan as a “bird brain”, but has not responded to TND’s request for comment.

TND also contacted Rogan for comment.

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