(De)Legitimation in Policy Transfer and Branding: A Dialogical View of the Romanian Covid-19 Vaccination Policy

With the growth of marketing’s influence extending from the commercial domain into governance strategy, public health branding and promotional communication relating to the Covid-19 vaccine were essential for national authorities trying to transfer the WHO communication strategy and vaccine policies to their domestic contexts while maintaining public trust. This study explores the role of (de)legitimation in the Covid-19 vaccine communication (#ROVaccinare/ROVaccination) policy transfer and branding conducted by the Romanian government on Facebook. Adopting a top-down and bottom-up approach to the meaning-making process of the message strategy promotion, we employed a mixed-methods approach. We drew on categorizations of message tailoring related to health communication and operationalizations of discursive (de)legitimation. The main findings showed a preference for rationalization legitimation through the usage of fact-based posts and a clear integration of authorization and narrativization into the message strategy promotion of the ROVaccination page. However, despite the prevalence of fact-based posts, legitimation through personal and medical stories was a positive predictor of engagement, unlike legitimation through facts. The bottom-up approach revealed polarized attitudes towards healthcare professionals as sources of the campaign, the Romanian medical system, and past and present vaccination. The dominance of polarization in online users’ comments emphasizes their role as agents of conversion, contesting either the message sources employed in the campaign or other commenters as personal authorities.