In the heart of lockdown people were still flounting the government rules and Boris Johnson asked advertising and PR agencies to help, so we mobilised 25 photographers to take action.

We decided to take a different approach, instead of shaming ‘flounters’ and using scare tactics, we created a playful and positive campaign to hero the ordinary people of Britain who were following the rules and staying home to support the NHS against the spread of Covid-19  -  all while raising money for our partner charity HEROES.

25 professional photographers were enlisted to shoot compelling portraits under our brief ‘Stay Home Heroes’ - a quirky look into the mundanity of lockdown, glorifying domestic acts as legendary heroic triumphs that help to save lives and protect the NHS.

We flipped the production restrictions of lockdown into a strength. Flatmates and partners became models, make-up artists and stylists were dialled in to consult, art directors and tech assistants advised via Zoom, some even had remote controlled cameras operating in their assistant’s homes. 

We deployed the images on social media in an initial wave via the photographers own social feeds using tags to infiltrate a range of trending and relevant threads. The images were real stories featuring real people, engineered to be highly shareable with irreverent headlines borrowing from the tropes of meme culture and high impact ‘thumb stopping’ imagery. Soon we caught the attention of the national press too.

The craft and concept of the campaign was praised by Clear Channel who donated 100 digital billboards in cities up and down the UK. The campaign was broadcast to the public throughout lockdown, reminding everybody that we were a united force against COVID-19.

In two weeks, a small team executed 25 remote shoots generating over 100 professional images which were shared on social media and ended up on 100 digital 48 sheets up and down the country. We spread lockdown awareness and lead by example, all while raising money for the charity ‘Heroes’ who provided tech and logistical solutions to the NHS frontline. We even had time to produce a film.

The total cost of the campaign was ZERO including media - Everybody donated their time for free in an epic effort that gave people a sense of purpose in the middle of a crisis and the chance to do good.

This project is dedicated to the citizens of the UK that did follow the lockdown rules, and the thousands of NHS staff that have worked relentlessly throughout the pandemic.