Stay Safe and #ShutOutCorona
The World Health Organisation has labelled Coronavirus a ‘pandemic’. The Indian Govt. has declared Covid-19 a ‘notified disaster’. The Hon’ble Prime Minister along with chief ministers across states have been appealing to citizens to stay indoors. But their pleas have been falling on deaf ears as is evident from the large number of people who have been arrested by the police for violating the countrywide lockdown.
While Coronavirus is a global emergency on an unprecedented scale, there seems to be a lack of awareness of its impact and the far-reaching consequences of not adhering to the one overarching guideline of staying indoors to stay safe. Even the so-called educated and evolved among us are venturing outside, not assigning enough importance to the need to lock ourselves in.
In an attempt to raise awareness of the importance of staying indoors, we at Wunderman Thompson South Asia planned this digital film for Tata Pravesh - a brand of steel doors from Tata Steel. Tata Steel has always kept the welfare of the nation and the well-being of our countrymen at the top of its agenda. It was only befitting that the message of staying indoors targeted at people of the nation is driven by a brand from the company whose steel built the nation.
The challenge we were faced with was how to get this done at a time when most of the entire world was behind closed doors, production houses included. The only solution was to leverage the strength of the Wunderman Thompson nationwide network. We turned to our colleagues across offices - Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai, Bangalore, Hyderabad and Kolkata – asking them to contribute videos shot on smartphones of the doors in their homes being shut, bolted, barred or latched.
The response that we received was overwhelming to say the least. This was crowdsourcing at its most efficient and teamwork at its very best. We sent out the request to the network late last Friday and were ready with the final film the following Monday. We stitched together roughly 50% of the responses, the balance having to be reluctantly omitted because of the demands of the edit.
The film is a montage of doors being shut. It signs off with the message ‘Only a closed door can open up roads to fight Corona Virus’ and beseeches people to ‘Take Quarantine Seriously’, that being the only way to #ShutOutCorona.
Commenting on the film, P. Anand, chief - services and solutions business, Tata Steel Ltd., said: “Tata Pravesh has always connected with social messaging and opened minds through all our films so far - Mother’s Day, Independence Day, World AIDS Day and Election Day. The Shut Out Corona film which urges people to take steps to prevent the scourge of Corona is another small contribution by Tata Pravesh to help the cause.”
Commenting on the creative concept, Arjun Mukherjee, ECD and VP, Wunderman Thompson, Kolkata, said, “It's high time, we the citizens, take quarantine seriously and do whatever it takes to flatten the curve. To begin the fight back all it takes is not to step outside and shut the door. This perfectly timed film drives awareness of staying indoors, that being the only way to neutralise the virus.”
Vijay Jacob Parakkal, senior VP and managing partner, Wunderman Thompson, said: “These are truly testing times, I am glad we were able to partner Tata Pravesh doors on this extremely relevant film. And I am proud the way the entire Wunderman Thompson family came together while working from home and helped us pull off this film. Please do watch the film and shut those doors. Stay in, Stay safe. Folks!”
