Brands Launch Creative Initiatives to Help People Impacted by COVID-19: Tuesday's First Things First

Welcome to First Things First, Adweek’s daily resource for marketers. We’ll be publishing the content to First Things First on Adweek.com each morning (like this post), but if you prefer that it come straight to your inbox, you can sign up for the email here. Brands Promote Social Distancing With Altered Logos, Slogans As governments around the world struggle to convince their citizens to stay home to curb the spread of the coronavirus, brands are stepping up to help. Using their own platforms and marketing teams, Chiquita Brands, Coca-Cola and Mucinex are among the many companies that have debuted branded PSAs urging people to abide by official recommendations surrounding COVID-19. See it: Check out how Chiquita altered its logo, Coca-Cola encouraged social distancing in Times Square, and Mucinex is spreading knowledge about the virus—and they're not the only ones joining in. It's Not a Real Guinness Ad. But It Is a Perfect Guinness Ad The praise for Guinness was effusive and abundant. The brand had created a flawless marketing move aimed at keeping people quarantined at home rather than out spreading the coronavirus that causes COVID-19. Just one problem: The brand had nothing to do with it. The digital poster, which creates a negative-space outline of a pint glass by topping it with a couch and placing the phrase “Stay at home” at the base, was a spec creation whipped up quickly by Irish freelance copywriter Luke O’Reilly. See it: View the brilliant ad. Iconic Album Covers Get the Social Distancing Treatment In another stunt to encourage social distancing, Los Angeles agency Activista has created 6 Feet Covers, a series of album covers reimagined to show what social distancing should look like. Using iconic covers from The Beatles, Queen, U2 and more, the agency spread out members of the bands in order to comply with social distancing rules. See it: Marvel at the ingenious creative work. Popeyes Wants to Share Its Netflix Password With You Popeyes is giving a Netflix username and password to 1,000 customers who tweet a picture of their at-home fried chicken order with the hashtag #ThatPasswordFromPopeyes. The Netflix accounts will be active for one month. In the midst of all this uncertainty, Popeyes wants “to provide a little bit of happiness and entertainment for everyone,” said global CMO Paloma Azulay. Read more: The restaurant chain developed the campaign with the help of its creative agency of record, Gut Miami. What It’s Like on the Frontlines of Panic Buying at Costco In recent weeks, we’ve seen panic buying in the U.S. spread from masks and hand sanitizer to toilet paper and shelf-stable goods like oat milk and Twinkies. Costco Wholesale, the members-only warehouse that sells goods in bulk at nearly 550 U.S. locations, is arguably the epicenter of consumer panic in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic. Read more: We talked to an employee about the madness, including shoppers fighting, climbing shelves and trying to change clothes to come back through the line again. Freelance and Out of Work? Here’s How to Get Help Now Many self-employed creative professionals—from freelance copywriters and creative directors, to entire video production houses—are finding that their client rosters are going away quickly. Budgets are being preemptively slashed. Entire businesses are closing shop, laying off not only employees but also cutting ties with contractors. So, what are freelancers and self-employed entrepreneurs supposed to do now? Read more: Emergency resources are out there and even though things are quickly changing each day, here’s a simple guide to get you started. Here are some positive ways brands are lending a helping hand during COVID-19: Diageo and Anheuser-Busch, the world’s largest beer and spirits companies have both announced they’ll be pivoting some of their production and logistics to produce millions of bottles of hand sanitizer around the world. YouTube has created Learn@Home, a website offering learning resources and content for families, spotlighting content on topics such as math, science, history and arts from popular learning channels including Code.org, Khan Academy and Sesame Street. TikTok said it will donate $10 million to the World Health Organization‘s Solidarity Response Fund, which helps the WHO accomplish tasks such as sending essential supplies to frontline healthcare workers, making sure communities have access to the latest science-based information and accelerating efforts to develop treatments and vaccines. Google is refining the experience when people search for Covid-19, including links to resources from national and local health authorities, as well as a carousel of Twitter accounts from local civic organizations and health authorities, in order to surface the most recent information and resources when they become available. In our latest Voice piece, Todd Copilevitz explains how Orangetheory Fitness went fully digital in order to engage its users during the coronavirus outbreak and create workouts using objects people could find around the house. Twitter said it is working with global public health authorities to dole out more of its blue verification checkmarks to experts who can provide credible updates on the coronavirus pandemic. Facebook donated its emergency reserve of 720,000 face masks that it had bought in case last year's California wildfires continued. Ad of the Day: For a World in Quarantine, Ikea Created a Simple Ad About Reconnecting With Your Home Ikea, perhaps the brand most synonymous with “home,” has created an ad touching on this surreal homebound moment. The ad was developed by McCann Madrid, which has created several clever and nuanced campaigns for the retailer in recent years. This time around, likely due to the rapid turnaround and limited production options amid travel lockdowns, the spot is relatively minimalist, but the brand still deserves credit for being both timely and sensitive to the range of experiences happening right now. 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