In early April 2020, the entire United States of America was grappling with the coronavirus pandemic. While many of the states had issued stay-at-home orders, there were rumblings for residents to be allowed out of their houses and back to their normal lives.

The Brief

Communicating the threat that coronavirus causes is, of course, challenging due to a variety of factors. While some of these factors are entirely preventable, the concept of transmitting the virus to multiple people and having it spread exponentially has proven to be quite difficult to communicate effectively. Furthermore, the need for social distancing in all facets of life has been equally hard to comprehend for some people.

As a result, The Ohio Department of Health developed and shared a very powerful public service announcement (PSA) which communicated the need for social distancing and the reason why very cleverly and succinctly.

The Challenge

Using the simple idea of ping pong balls on mousetraps, expertly framed, shot and edited, they first showed what could happen with no social distancing (with all mousetraps set up directly next to each other). By dropping the ping pong ball onto any one of the traps, it set off a chain reaction with eventually all mousetraps being set off, launching more ping pongs balls into the environment.

The PSA then shows a scenario where the mousetraps are evenly spread, with more distance between each of them. By randomly throwing a ping pong ball through the field, the space between each mousetrap allows the ball to travel unimpeded without setting off more traps.

Final Thoughts

While it is an overly simplistic presentation of the notion of social distancing, it is undoubtedly highly effective, and a great way to get the message across. Hopefully, Australia has less of a need for health announcement videos such as this, but if it does, let’s hope that there is creative that is on par with this. Faith is constantly researching and reviewing the most effective forms of communication across the globe, and our creative services, video production and digital capabilities are all up to the task. Get in touch with us today to find out more.