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We were briefed on this project about a week after the Ahmaud Arbery shooting gained national attention. In our very first conversation with the Ad Council team, we said we’d love to tackle the brief as long as they were open to us developing a campaign that also addressed the risks Black Americans face while wearing masks. They wholeheartedly agreed.
Then, while we were in creative development, George Floyd was killed. His murder had a tremendous impact on the whole team. We cried together and learned from each other, but our resolve was strong. The primary message of You Will See Me is to wear a face mask to protect yourself and your community from the coronavirus, but a strong secondary message is that everyone deserves to be seen for the human beings they are under the mask. Our partners at the Ad Council never shied away from that message.
The goal of You Will See Me was to bring the messages of public safety and social justice together to inspire people to not only wear a mask for themselves and their community but to do their part to make it safe for everyone to do so. Since wearing a face mask is so important in preventing the spread of the coronavirus, no one should have to worry about being discriminated against while wearing one.
To get the word out and bring the message home, we worked with our talent to create individual spots for each of them so they had space to share their own personal stories and reach their communities of followers and fans.
We were honored to work with a diverse group of celebrities from the multi-faceted Black community that included Academy Award-winning actress Viola Davis, Olympic gymnast Simone Biles, The Roots frontmen Questlove and Black Thought, sports TV personality Stephen A. Smith, former NFL star Victor Cruz, gospel singer Kirk Franklin, hip hop artist Lecrae, and television actors Lala Anthony, Marcus Scribner, Deon Cole and Al Shearer. Each person truly brought their own energy and passion for protecting their community to the project which we are so thankful for.
Viola Davis
Marcus Scribner
La La Anthony
Black Thought
Simone Biles
It was important for us to create a campaign that ultimately put the power in the community’s hands to make the campaign their own and spread the word. Everyone who visited YouWillSeeMe.org could use their photo to create a custom image to share with their friends on social and invite them to join the movement.
We also worked closely with The Ad Council and the CDC to make sure the site included the most up-to-date info about what we can all do to protect ourselves and our communities from the coronavirus.
This was our first shoot during quarantine and given the topic, it was of the utmost importance that we produced these ads safely and to the standards of the CDC while maintaining our creative intent. We worked closely with our production partners and directors to create multiple filming scenarios to offer our talent. To be honest, a lot of the ideas didn't work, but we learned from the mistakes and created a great system that allowed us to be "on set" with a crew virtually through Zoom and TeamViewer. This way we could see what was being shot on the iPhone as well as have direct contact with talent through their personal phone. We are so grateful for the participants and their families who had immense patience and understanding to help make this come to life.
