So with advertising budgets threatening to disappear down the Covid-19 plughole, and agencies seemingly twiddling their thumbs – albeit at home – you might be wondering who could possibly be coming to the rescue of the world.
Boris? Trump? Macron? Forget it. Step forward McCann, yep an agency and everything, which has drafted in actor Kevin Bacon – the man famous for being “six degrees of separation” from everyone in the US – for a social media push aimed at stemming the spread of virus.
#IStayHomeFor asks people to post an image or video to their social channels of themselves at home holding up the name of a person they want to keep safe. Bacon named his wife, Kyra Sedgwick, and woe betide him if he hadn’t…
McCann asks everyone to join in and tell the world who they are staying at home for and tag in six friends to participate. Elton John has already accepted Bacon’s challenge, tagging Ed Sheeran, Taron Edgerton, Sam Smith and now David Beckham has too (now, now don’t be nasty, he’s trying; very trying).
Apparently, McCann North America President Devika Bulchandani has explained the rationale behind the campaign in an internal email to staff which explains that the agency wants to make this “a real movement”, designed to be “regrammed”, retweeted and shared on Facebook.
So, what is the consensus around the Decision Marketing office? Is this a cynical ploy by an agency to get itself some decent coverage at a time when most businesses are keeping schtum? Or is it a genuine attempt to halt the spread of the virus and inject some human emotion?
Well, we’re feeling generous this week, so we’re going for the latter and whoever came up with the idea deserves a big pat on the back.
Of course, we would all rather #IStayHomeFor our loved ones at Elton John’s pad in the South of France than at the Decision Marketing Nerve Centre, but hey everyone’s got to make sacrifices…
Decision Marketing Adometer: A Covid-19 busting 10 out of 10
