Diego de la Maza on ‘preparedness, resilience and group within the face of adversity’

Advert Age is marking Pleasure Month 2023 with our Honoring Artistic Excellence bundle, by which LGBTQ+ creators revisit a few of their favourite initiatives. (Learn the introduction right here.) This week, our visitor editor Lisa Sherman turns the highlight to Diego de la Maza, government VP, head of manufacturing at Deutsch LA. Right here, de la Maza writes about preventing vaccine misinformation.

I’ve produced a number of campaigns for the Advert Council, however one actually exemplifies the significance of preparedness, resilience and group within the face of adversity.

As manufacturing unions and regulators proceed to carry COVID-19 restrictions, it’s surreal to assume again to the early days of the pandemic when there was widespread confusion and concern as individuals and communities discovered themselves grappling with unprecedented adjustments to their every day lives. Business productions got here to a screeching halt as leaders scrambled to determine what had been secure and acceptable processes and protocols. Dwell-action shoots had been canceled as companies and types shifted to various strategies of making content material. I keep in mind sitting at my eating room desk (which has turn out to be my official at-home workplace) and pondering, How the hell are we going to maneuver previous this infinite sea of user-generated cell video and re-edited footage?

As vaccines for the virus emerged, the Advert Council was instrumental in preventing vaccine misinformation and launched varied packages to encourage vaccine confidence and sluggish the unfold of COVID-19. In the summertime of 2021, the Advert Council and Deutsch LA partnered to create a movie collection aimed toward creating trustworthy conversations between vaccinated and unvaccinated individuals. The movies featured actual individuals in loving relationships who occurred to disagree on the COVID-19 vaccine. We aimed toward discovering a various group, from same-sex companions to greatest mates and even siblings. The outcomes had been highly effective and emotional movies that drove hesitant and misinformed younger adults to platforms that supplied details in regards to the virus and out there vaccines.