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| CORONAVIRUS BRIEFING |
Today we celebrate Shakespeare’s birthday,
even though the exact date of his birth is unknown. Another bit of
ambiguous Bard history is whether or not he wrote during the three
bubonic plagues he lived through in 1592, 1603, and 1606. Three bubonic
plagues! It seems likely he crafted at least one of his 38 plays and 154
sonnets during his time in isolation.
So, if we’re to take anything away from the past, perhaps it’s
that creating is key to survival. And so, let us weather this plague
together by telling tales of mistaken identities and wedding crashing
fairies, let’s dress up as the opposite sex and cavort about the house,
let’s act out our wild mishaps in a game of pantomime while drinking out
of goblets and laughing until we cry.
Today’s Coronavirus Briefing is 1,227 words and will take you six minutes to read.
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| Top news |
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| Getty Images |
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Another 4.427 million Americans filed for unemployment benefits this week, bringing the five-week total to more than 26 million.
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Dr. Robert Redfield,
director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, warned that
a second wave of coronavirus will be far more acute when it coincides
with flu season this fall. Afterward, he worked to modulate the severity of his warning.
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Angela Merkel said the coronavirus pandemic is “still at the beginning” as EU leaders try to agree to a Europe-wide recovery fund.
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Africa saw
a 43% spike in COVID-19 cases over the last week, highlighting a
warning from the World Health Organization that the continent could
become the next epicenter of the outbreak.
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The first pets in the U.S., all feline, tested positive for coronavirus.
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| The Takeaway: |
| “Now is the winter of our discontent.” |
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| Sponsored Content |
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| The
Agency 100: The agency world continues to evolve, whether via the
consumer-marketing-grade creativity being pushed by upstart firms or via
the acquisitions and mergers that have swallowed up any number of
hallowed brands. MM&M’s annual Agency 100 package offers the only
full-on analysis of the health agency ecosystem, including independently
reported profiles on each of the Top 100 firms as ranked by 2019 North
American revenue. |
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| Data |
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| Getty Images |
| Every aspect of this pandemic is being tracked, in every way possible. |
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On April 8,
we wrote that recent investigations found black Americans
disproportionately impacted by the coronavirus. Seema Verma,
administrator at The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services,
says it will release coronavirus data regarding race and ethnicity and
outcomes in early May. Experts have speculated the reason for the
disparity, with Dr. Anthony Fauci, the U.S. government’s top infectious
disease expert, saying the pandemic sheds light on racial disparities in
healthcare.
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Fitbit
is collaborating with The Scripps Research Institute and Stanford
Medicine to find out if wearable data can help detect, track and contain
COVID-19. Fitbit users now have the option to share their health data
to determine if tracking changes in heart rate, activity and sleep can
provide an early indication of viral illnesses before actual symptoms
start.
- Speaking of data, according to one survey, Popeyes’ fans are more likely than Chick-fil-A’s to remain quarantined when lockdowns lift.
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| The Takeaway: |
| All data points are not created equal. |
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| Friends |
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| Getty Images |
| Herewith, some incredible innovations and pivotal motivations from the auto industry and comms. |
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Autocar Professional reports that the Mahindra Group,
one of the largest vehicle manufacturers in India, has added an
intubation aspiration/aerosol box made from the windshields to its list
of coronavirus-combating innovations. The company has been using its
factories and equipment to make face shields, masks, low-cost
ventilators and hand sanitizer. The new aspiration boxes act as a shield
for medical staff during the intubation process, helping protect them
when removing a patient's tubes.
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Jeremy Lee,
consulting editor at Campaign U.K., looks at some of the agencies and
individuals mobilizing to do what they can to help. Many people are
exchanging their feelings of powerlessness for a sense of purpose and
leveraging their skills and tools to get frontline workers the PPE they
need.
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PlantSavers website
was created by three friends determined to help British nurseries by
purchasing plants at risk of going to waste and offering them to
households via a zero-contact delivery service. PlantSavers also donates
plants to good causes, including ambulance drivers, schools and those
supporting the homeless.
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| The Takeaway: |
| Creating something meaningful with your friends is a great way to battle feelings of powerlessness. |
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| Creatives |
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| Campaigns for Ikea and snack brand Emily |
| Making
stuff in isolation is hard. Feeling confined isn’t the ideal territory
for letting our imaginations run wild. But we’re trying. |
- Cream, the annual competition
showcasing breakthrough creative talent in advertising, is launching an
initiative to ensure young creatives get support and exposure despite
the coronavirus crisis. Brittaney Kiefer of Campaign U.K. has all the details
of The Cream Collective — a collaboration between The Talent Business,
which oversees the competition, Campaign and ad agency Creature.
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Ben Middleton,
co-chief creative officer at Creature, reveals the perils of being
separated from a creative partner in lockdown. The piece should perhaps
come with a warning sticker saying something like: “The following
memorandum includes kicking, prodding, pulling, interrogating, arguing,
wonky veg boxes and running in slow motion."
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PRWeek U.K.
spoke to creative comms experts to learn how their practices have
changed. While many have been “playing it safe,” focusing on actions to
help with the crisis, the question of whether it’s time to be bold and
take risks is cautiously being considered.
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| The Takeaway: |
| Nostalgia
for our creative partners weighs heavy on the mind but new nimble ways
of executing creative campaigns are emerging during this lockdown. |
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| Temperatures |
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| Getty Images |
| How’s everyone else feeling? |
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Simon Gwynn of Campaign
takes a look at the latest IPA Bellwether Report that shows marketers
confident of speedy recovery, with a significant number forecasting
budget growth this year. The data was collected March 2–27, ending just a
few days after the U.K. government announced the lockdown, which raises
the possibility the figures would be significantly worse, were the
research repeated today.
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Surekha Ragavan for PRWeek Asia,
notes that speed, agility and low overheads are aiding independent PR
agencies through the crisis. In conversation with three PR managing
directors and one CEO, Ragavan finds that without shareholders to answer
to, decision-making has become faster and more responsive for some,
while others are relying on thinking creatively and making necessary
organizational adjustments.
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Liza Berger,
senior editor at McKnight’s Long-Term Care News, has an incredibly
affecting piece about the way nursing homes have emerged as the whipping
boy for the nation’s poor response to COVID-19. “Outrage,” Berger
writes. “That is the only word that comes to mind to adequately explain
the devolving situation that has occurred for nursing home providers as a
result of the novel coronavirus.”
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People Management
has heard from readers struggling with bosses not taking the threat of
worker wellbeing seriously. Martin Tiplady, CEO of Chameleon People
Solutions and former HR director, offers advice.
- "Disdain toward our nursing homes
and their residents is without a doubt the most blatant display of
ageism this country has ever witnessed,” writes Bill McGinley,
president and CEO of the American College of Health Care
Administrators. His op-ed in McKnight’s Long-Term Care News is a
painfully laid-bare look at the injustice of nursing centers being last
on the list to receive protective supplies, testing and support and
their vilification in the media and punishment by the Centers for
Medicare & Medicaid Services.
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| The Takeaway: |
| Emotions related to the workplace now run the gamut but outrage should not have to be one of them. |
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| Chorus and verse |
| “If music be the food of love, play on.” Here are some Bard-centric poetic songs. |
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| See you tomorrow to close out another week of quarantine. |
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