Still from Ford’s “Finish Strong” spot.
Ford
In a new advertising campaign using actor Bryan Cranston, Ford Motor is urging Americans to adhere to Covid-19 protocols to save lives in the next period of the pandemic.
The campaign, part of an initiative that the company dubbed #FinishStrong, includes a new commercial by filmmaker Peter Berg and voiced by the star of “Breaking Bad” and “Your Honor”. The ads will be launched during college football bowling games on ABC and ESPN and NFL games on Fox in early January.
Ford leaders said in a call on Wednesday that the company wanted to extend Covid’s protocols in the last stretch of the pandemic in an effort to prevent tens of thousands of additional deaths as vaccines were launched.
“We are entering a really critical period,” said Ford Communications Director Mark Truby. “Vaccines are coming, but we know from health experts and so on that up to 50,000 American lives can be saved between now and when we have the mass adoption of vaccines and so on, and the types of numbers that will really make the difference. ”
The ad, which features scenes of frontline workers and those affected by Covid, aims to achieve a unifying tone.
“We know that Americans don’t necessarily want to hear preaching and they don’t want to hear scary tactics,” said Truby. “The idea behind this was how can we come up with a positive message that appeals to people’s sense of humanity, sense of patriotism, sense of doing the right thing for others?”
The company worked with advertising agency Wieden + Kennedy and the Civic Entertainment Group on the spot. Ford is dedicating a series of slots during the games in early January that it would originally use to promote its F-150 truck.
Ford worked with the UAW to produce what it says are tens of millions of personal protective equipment in the midst of the pandemic, including 20 million face shields, 50,000 fans, 32,000 respirators and 1.4 million aprons.