In March 2020 as the COVID-19 crisis was enveloping the globe, the Ohio Department of Health turned to Real Art to deliver the message that social distancing works. We needed to create an emotional gut-punch of an ad that would actually change behavior. Lives were literally at stake.
While others were piecing together content with recorded zoom calls and stock footage, we knew we wanted to take a different approach. We also knew we had to create something safely—with no on-screen talent and a socially-distant skeleton crew.
Our solution was to take a subject that virologists could write whole books on, and sum it up into a simple, easily understood, visual metaphor. Combining two everyday objects—ping pong balls and mouse traps—we demonstrated how distancing can stop a contagion in a video that was built and filmed entirely by our team, using no trick photography or digital effects.
The resulting Mousetrap video has been seen over a billion times, received a National Gold Addy and an Emmy, was written about everywhere from The Washington Post to the British Mirror, and was licensed across the globe (and stolen and rebranded by a few nations as well).
When we suspect child abuse, our impulse is often to look away. Which makes delivering a message about the topic especially challenging. Real Art answered that challenge by creating a visual metaphor: a child taking a trust fall into the arms of waiting community members who, one-by-one, begin to walk away. To pull off this seemingly simple concept, our video team integrated a range of slow motion timelines, practical effects, and stunt work. The resulting spot created a tension viewers couldn’t stop watching until the end.
By late 2022, Covid fatigue had set in, and fewer people were getting booster shots, even among those who’d gotten the original vaccine. So when the Ohio Department of Health wanted to launch a new campaign promoting boosters, we opted for a light-hearted, fresh approach: comparing not getting boosted to getting caught in the rain with half an umbrella, or eating a messy meal with half a bib.
