Why this?
During this unique and sad time, it is important to remind the public that they should not panic, but follow the precautions that are suggest by the CDC. But, how do you get someone, with no medical training, and even little risk, to understand the necessity of following instryctions that they may not even understand. Thats right, I am talking about children. According to the CDC, more than 25% of COVID-19 patients do not show any symptoms, a big precentage of that being kids. Ofcourse it is goos news that kids are less likely to be affected by the virus, but what about the kids parents, or grandparents that are in close quarters with this child are likely to get infected. My solution? Well… although it is hard to admit, the main attention source of kids these days are their ipads and more specifically the games. So here is a little idea for an advertisment,ideally a donation from the games themselves, in order to encourage kids to
a. Wash their hands ALL the time
b. Not touch their face
c. And explain why they can not hang out with their friends
now the next question is… how?
How can we do this?
It all starts with some research on how to actually get kids to do things. For this, I went https://www.ahaparenting.com which may seem like not the most credible source, but I could not think of advice better than from parents themselves, which led to some important steps in order to get things to listen.
- Don’t start talking until you have your child’s attention
- Use few words
- See it from their point of view
- Engage cooperation
So, here is a preliminary idea. After a certain level is finished on a game, or when an ad is usually promoter, instead of the typical advertisement it will be the instructions on how to behave during the corona virus. This ad will be timed, but will use rhetorical methods applicable to children in order to get them to apply the instructions in their real life. One of these methods would be an interactive component and another would be having the simulation from their prospective (helps engage the child). In addition, there will be artistic elements that also work to engage the child, such as having the characters in the popup resemble the characters in the game. The specific targeted age range will be children ages 5-7 years old, meaning that they have some, but limited reading skills. The mock up will be done as Toca kids salon as the example game
This game is meant for children from 3-7 years old which matches the target age range and has recognizable characters that can be easily replicated.
Alena and Francesco's typography blog 