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This week has naturally seen continued focus on COVID-19, with further restrictions announced in order to help stop the spread of the virus, including the lock-down announced on Monday evening by the Prime Minister. Advertising has had a visible profile during the crisis, with public health campaigns appearing across the media and OOH sites, brands doing their bit to support NHS workers via discounts and special assistance to vulnerable groups, agencies creating campaigns and supporting initiatives like Clap for Carers, and our national media keeping the public informed and aware at a crucial time.
At the AA, we been active in supporting our members and advocating their position to Government during this unprecedented period. For example we made representations to The Treasury on behalf of freelancers and the self-employed and following the announcement last night by the Chancellor of the Exchequer of support for these crucial colleagues, our Chief Executive, Stephen Woodford, commented: “[Last night’s] announcement by the Chancellor of support for the self-employed and freelancers is a hugely positive move, which the Advertising Association and its members and partners across industry have been asking for with urgency in ongoing conversations with Government.”
You can read the statement in full here. Stephen has discussed our engagement with Government in a feature op-ed over in The Drum here, where he also lays out how we can represent industry when the recovery from Covid-19 comes. In other news, we have also been updating our page of Covid-19 advice, from both Government and industry, on our website here, so please do keep checking back.
Our colleagues at ISBA also revealed a new section on their website yesterday dedicated to COVID-19 guidance for its members. It focuses on three key areas related to the virus where, with the help of its partners and contacts, ISBA has offered support and guidance. These are support for media, legal implications and tone & messaging. Take a look here.
On Wednesday, our industry’s non-profit education programme, Media Smart, launched a brand-new teaching resource for secondary school students based on ITV and Veg Power’s Eat Them To Defeat Them ad, where they are asked to create an advertising campaign to encourage healthier eating among their peers.
The new resource takes students behind the scenes at adam&eveDDB HQ to show how Eat Them To Defeat Them was created, while also encouraging them to consider a career in advertising.
Many recent discussions have been around education in the face of COVID-19 and how parents and carers can continue to educate young people in the current climate. Media Smart’s education resources are practical and adaptable and have a strong online and film-based emphasis, allowing for teachers, students and parents to access the materials from home.
Media Smart Director, Rachel Barber-Mack, discusses creating a healthy future for young people through advertising in a piece on our website here. The launch of the new resource was also covered by Campaign, Further Education News, Little Black Book and Decision Marketing.
Despite the situation we are currently in with regards to COVID-19, we have never seen a greater push from brands, advertisers and the media who are doing great things in response to the outbreak and the circumstances that we are now living in. It has been incredibly uplifting to see these stories and it really proves that we can come together and do good as an industry, especially in such difficult times.
Our most recent report published in the Advertising Pays series focuses on UK advertising’s positive contribution to society and uses case studies to highlight such brilliant work, which are showcased on the report’s dedicated hub here. It only seems right to also now highlight case studies from businesses who have created positive initiatives in response to COVID-19, and so we are going to be adding a special category to the hub that will act as a one-stop-shop for all of the wonderful work that our industry has been doing.
This will go live from April 1 and we will promote these examples throughout the whole of the month. If you, or someone you know, has done something positive in response to COVID-19 and would like the case study to be included, then please get in touch with Ellie.
You’ve made it this far – why not treat yourself and watch our ad of the week?
Want the full edition to land in your inbox every Friday? Drop us an email on aa@adassoc.org.uk and quote ‘Ad Matters’.
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