The Google-owned video sharing site says the partnership will involve ads on billboards, buses, bus stops etc as well as on the YouTube platform – with YouTube themselves footing the bill.

YouTube has previously been criticised for being slow to stop the spread of coronavirus disinformation, but it said it had removed some 900,000 pandemic-related videos that didn’t adhere to its rules.

The campaign will feature the slogan ‘Let’s Not Go Back’ and will show group activities and events – such as concerts – that will be possible again after the pandemic, as well as explain the science of vaccines.

YouTube’s UK managing director, Ben McOwen Wilson, said he wanted to avoid “vaccine ambivalence” among young people as life starts to return to normal. He said YouTube had “huge reach” among under-35s and could communicate with young people in a way that was light-hearted and not preaching.