Back in March, the United Nations sent a call to creative people around the world to develop messaging that could help stop the spread of COVID-19. My friend Sid, a fellow copywriter, forwarded me the link and over the last few weeks we’ve batted around some ideas. We finally landed on this.
![](https://i1.wp.com/www.obsessedwithconformity.com/wp-content/uploads/WHO_COVID19_RESPONSE_GIVEPAUSE_1.jpeg?fit=1024%2C683&ssl=1)
![](https://i1.wp.com/www.obsessedwithconformity.com/wp-content/uploads/WHO_COVID19_RESPONSE_GIVEPAUSE_2.jpeg?fit=1024%2C683&ssl=1)
![](https://i1.wp.com/www.obsessedwithconformity.com/wp-content/uploads/WHO_COVID19_RESPONSE_GIVEPAUSE_3.jpeg?fit=1024%2C683&ssl=1)
![](https://i1.wp.com/www.obsessedwithconformity.com/wp-content/uploads/WHO_COVID19_RESPONSE_GIVEPAUSE_4.jpeg?fit=1024%2C683&ssl=1)
![](https://i0.wp.com/www.obsessedwithconformity.com/wp-content/uploads/WHO_COVID19_RESPONSE_GIVEPAUSE_5.jpeg?fit=1024%2C683&ssl=1)
And here’s what we came up with for the landing page GivePause.int –
![](https://i1.wp.com/www.obsessedwithconformity.com/wp-content/uploads/UN_COVID19_RESPONSE_GIVEPAUSE_LANDING_PAGE.png?fit=727%2C1024&ssl=1)
The UN Creative Brief included some serious restrictions, and also a range of goals. Here’s how we justified our work –
Concept: Give Pause
Writers: Sid Murlidhar, Jim Mitchem
Art Director: Carissa Mak
Key Area it Solves: Physical Distancing. And to a lesser degree, Kindness Contagion and Personal Hygiene
Visual: Images of empty landmarks that are usually bustling with people. 5th Avenue. The Louvre. Piazza di Spagna. In the center of all these landmarks is a white PAUSE button.
Copy: stay indoors, practice social distancing, avoid large gatherings, save lives, GivePause.int
Justification: According to sources, the idiom ‘to give pause’ means: “To cause one to take a moment to consider something.” And the empty streets of busy places represents visual proof that we are coming together to consider something on a larger scale. Something bigger than all of us. Giving Pause.
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So that’s it.
Maybe our concept is chosen. Maybe not. But it felt pretty good to work on this, and to think about saving the world using the only real talent I have. It felt like I was doing something.
For the record, Sid and I have never met in person. We have known each other on Twitter for about a decade, but all this was done virtually without ever so much as picking up a phone to speak. What a world.
If you do share the work, they encourage you to tag @WHO @UN @UnitedNations and use the hashtags: #CovidOpenBrief #UNCovid19Brief and #Covid19
Thanks.
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