"Manchester Jon Snow" promotes COVID safety in vaccine PSA telling city that winter is coming

Manchester City Council figures Game Of Thrones is still popular enough for a PSA

By Reid McCarter  |  October 19, 2021 | 7:15pm
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Jon Snow may know nothing, but he at least has pretty sound pandemic advice. Screenshot: Manchester City Council

Though Game Of Thrones seems to have fallen out of the public consciousness within a week of its rough final season’s conclusion, the north (of England) remembers. As evidence of this, take Manchester City Council’s new COVID PSA, which uses the city’s top Jon Snow impersonator and a fairly flimsy Thrones tie-in to urge residents to get vaccines before the arrival of winter.

The video sees “Manchester Jon Snow”—an actor named James Martin, who resembles Kit Harington mostly in having black hair and sad puppy dog eyes—emerge from the backroom of the city’s town hall in slow motion to stand up in an empty room and state that “Manchester’s winter is coming.”

“To prepare for winter, we must have both COVID jabs,” he continues, hand on Halloween costume sword. “Have your COVID booster when asked, have a flu jab, stay home when asked.”

He signs off by calling himself “Manchester’s Jon Snow, King Of The North.”

The Manchester Evening News writes that Martin (AKA Snow) not only appeared in the ad but also wore his costume while waiting for his shot at a town hall walk-in vaccination center.

Though we’re unsurprised to hear it from a man dressed like a character who’s been stabbed (sometimes mortally) so many times, James said his vaccine “was quick and easy and absolutely nothing to worry about.”

Fortunately, this is a rich vein for future PSAs, as long as northern English cities can drum up impersonators ready to star in videos where ice zombies dressed like the COVID virus attack armies led by knock-off Thrones actors or short films where CGI dragons labelled “vaccine” and “infection” fight above the city streets.

[via NME]

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