If you’ve ever needed a medically motivated excuse for blacklisting your Facebook friends, Help Remedies and agency Tool are here with a web app that will tell you which of your contacts is afflicted with illness this flu season. Let the public shaming commence!
The Facebook app, fittingly named “Help My Friend Gave me the Flu,” marks interactive director/clothing designer James Cooper’s first project for Tool, who lured Cooper away from JWT in October. Of the app Cooper says, “Most Facebook ideas are all about gaining friends and keeping in touch – Help My Friend Gave me the Flu – is the opposite. It works out who you should avoid!” In other words, should you come down with the flu, you will lose Facebook friends at a similar rate in which you lose vacation days. But, this is what you get for telling people you’re sick in order to cultivate sympathy “Likes,” I guess.
Regarding his debut for Tool, Cooper tells us, “‘I really like simple ideas that are based on a truth. I think when people get sick the first thing they do is look to blame someone, then they dick around on Facebook. So, we were thinking, combine the two. Also, I quite like the idea of a site that is supposed to be all about making new friends and reaching out to people actually telling you who you should avoid. Or maybe that’s just me.”
For more information on the app, visit Tool’s website or access the app on Facebook here. Credits after the jump.
Client: Help Remedies
Title: “Help I Have the Flu”
Launch Date: January 2013
Digital Production Co: Tool of North America
Interactive Director: James Cooper
EPs: Dustin Callif, Brian Latt, Oliver Fuselier