Digital < Social > Virtual
As the COVID-19 pandemic hit Chicago, there was a lot of disinformation spreading throughout the African American community. There was also a lot of humorous social media post being passed around, which we believe was downplaying the seriousness of the virus. We leveraged this tension point to break through all the noise.
To interrupt the conversation directly, we launched social media videos of comedians delivering the message that there is a lot of funny stuff on social media about the virus, but there’s nothing funny about the consequences of not taking the proper precautions, especially for African Americans.
#butSeriously
Recognizing that the African American community doesn’t have a high level of trust in governmental agencies, we made sure the campaign kept a grassroots feel, so that it looked and sounded nothing like the messaging coming from authorities. This struck a nerve with African Americans and as they passed the videos around on social media, adding their own two cents to the conversations.
We also put out a call for Chicagoans to hijack all the Coronavirus jokes being passed around by encouraging them to re-share all the funny posts they see on social media with #butSeriously #CoronavirusAintNoJoke #FollowTheGuidelines #StayHomeSaveLives.
To really drive home the message of how serious the pandemic is, we partnered with iHeart radio to put on a virtual comedy show that provided the stage for comedians to question, challenge, poke, prod, attack, and even offend, to get their point across. And our cast of comedians didn’t disappoint with uncensored sets that put the pandemic into perspective, while roasting irresponsible behavior.
