- [Narrator] Right now, it feels
like the world's standing still.
- [Narrator] Your country needs you
to stay on your couch and order in.
- [Narrator] The world has changed
and Vegas is changing with it.
- [Reporter] As the coronavirus
pandemic progresses,
companies are searching
to find the right tone
and message for their marketing.
While some industries like travel
and retail have cut
back their ad spending,
many companies are still
heavily promoting their products
and have pivoted their ad
campaigns during the crisis.
How are some of the world's
most recognizable companies
re-envisioning their advertising
in the times of a pandemic.
- [Narrator] Hang out
from home for America.
- The coronavirus has upended everything
and that definitely extends to marketers,
all of whom laid out plans
for the entire year well ahead of time
and most of whom had
to tear up those plans.
- [Reporter] Early one,
as the pandemic spread
and the world shut down,
marketers had to act quickly
to make sure their ads
were still appropriate.
- [Nat] You had marketers on the air
showing people putting fingers
in other people's mouths.
- Mhm, that's so good.
- That's not right.
- Crowds of people chasing people around.
All kinds of stuff that suddenly tonally
is wildly inappropriate.
So the first thing that marketers did
was slam on the brakes.
They started pulling things down
as quickly as they could.
One of the examples was the Mint Mobile ad
in which somebody put queso dip
in somebody else's mouth,
which is kind of horrifying
but that was the joke
even in the first place
but it became really quite horrifying
in the context of what everybody
was suddenly going through.
- [Reporter] Mint Mobile said
they were considering pulling the ad
when Twitter users started mocking it.
That sped up their decision
to quickly remove the spot.
- So that's just one example of creative
that had to be tailored,
taken off the air,
removed or uprooted as soon as
people realized the severity
of what was going on.
- [Reporter] Once the
dated ads were pulled,
marketers decided they still needed
to come out with comforting messages.
- So they said, "I've gotta stay relevant.
"What can we do to stay
current and present
"while locked at home?"
and so they figured out ways
to make ads from their homes
that reflected what their
audiences were doing at home.
So all of a sudden you
say an enormous amount
of ads showing empty streets,
people at home, it became repetitive.
- [Narrator] For now, we're
all living a new normal.
- [Narrator] We're living
in uncertain times.
- [Narrator] Our spirit is what unites us.
- [Reporter] Susan Credle
and her creative teams
at FCB Worldwide advise some
of the world's largest brands
on their approach to advertising.
- There's been some
cynical videos out there
making fun of the piano music
and the hopeful words and
the unprecedented times
but I think we have to be honest,
we all were jumping into the conversation
at the exact same time
and so we started similar conversations
that first month, month and a half.
- [Reporter] Now brands
are looking for ways
to move out of the public
service announcement phase.
- I think that the next thing
that we're gonna see is people,
I think people want to laugh a little
and to lighten up.
- [Nat] Now you're seeing brands looking
for ways to be less somber
and more entertaining.
They're seeing marketers reintroduce humor
into their ads about the
absurdity of life stuck
at home with your family or friends
or unable to go outside.
- [Narrator] Cocktail, who's with me?
Charlie, cocktail?
Bobby, Mark, Zoe, Gabby?
- You'll see a lot of safety advertising
but also a lot of tension in marketing
as advertisers try not
to overplay that message.
- [Narrator] A new Vegas
for the new reality.
- [Narrator] WeatherTech
features non-porous surfaces
that can easily be wiped with
germ-killing disinfectants.
- [Narrator] After leaving
our 450-degrees ovens,
the only hands that touch them are yours.
- [Reporter] The longer-term
outlook for advertisers
and the industries that rely on it,
like much of the rest of
the economy is uncertain.
- It's been proven now
that during a crisis
or a recession, the
brands and the companies
that keep investing and keep
their message out there,
actually come out of it much stronger.
- It's very hard to tell
how much the ad industry
is going to look like,
the ad industry we knew a year ago,
even once we have a vaccine
and life gets back to
something like normal.
