#NYTough

The world changed overnight, and we all had to change with it. But not everyone chose to listen to the advice of medical experts. Many people still refused to wear their mask in public, citing that it restricts communication.

My frequent creative-partner, Rob Carducci and I saw an opportunity here to address those holdouts. Our insight was simple: By covering your mouth, you’re actually speaking volumes.

We created this campaign for the “New York Tough PSA Video Contest” issued by Governor Cuomo and his daughter, Mariah on a shoestring budget in under 10 days. A special thanks to film editor, Michael Bellino who graciously brought this to life.

While the contest only called for a :30 commercial submission we also wanted to show that our idea was expandable. We envisioned developing NYS-branded face masks that could be handed out in public gathering hot spots, such as city and state parks.

We would then photograph people wearing these masks and feature them in an out-of-home campaign takeover in high visibility areas such as Times Square.

We even caught the attention of Mariah Kennedy Cuomo who was, after all, the one in charge of running it.