The Ad Council's outdoor campaign lets viewers thank frontline workers personally

Effort by R/GA is supported by a PSA featuring a new track by Alicia Keys

Published On
Apr 27, 2020

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The Ad Council's latest COVID-19 effort will let people send personal messages of thanks to frontline workers they know.

The campaign, by R/GA, utilizes digital out-of-home advertising space and video to display messages of thanks to key workers, letting people post personal notes on social media using the hashtag #outthereforus. Using technology from Pixlee, the community-created content will be aggregated and featured on a website, OutThereForUs.com, with a few turned into digital OOH messaging.

The advertising will be strategically placed on route to hospitals, highway road signs and outside grocery stores in cities facing heavy surges of the virus. They include a takeover within New York City’s Times Square and one of the largest OOH billboards in America, located at the junction of I-10 and 100 in Los Angeles.

To highlight the effort and encourage viewers to participate, there's a video PSA featuring a new track by Alicia Keys titled "Good Job," which features footage of essential workers going about their jobs.

“We loved the idea that the Ad Council could help thank essential workers by not making ads," said Chris Joakim, R/GA executive creative director, in a statement. "They’re all real messages of thanks from real people.”