The death toll itself tells the story of how the pandemic has effected the UK and unfortunately in other countries worldwide the rates have not been much better. Unfortunately the virus was not handled correctly in the early stages, from late lockdown, to the eat out to help out scheme, to 20,000 deaths being consered a job well done, the pandemic has not been handled correctly in the Uk from the very start. The overall statement I’m looking to make is that the government did not take the virus seriously enough in the early stages and in turn led to thousands of people losing their lives. The virus was made to seem like nothing to worry about with late lockdowns and schemes encouraging people to leave their homes and go out for food or to go back to work.
Many of the controversial comments from the likes of Dominic Cummings and Boris Johnson when taken slightly out of context look as though they endorsed the virus, or at least didn’t fully understand the extent to which it is was damaging the UK early on, therefor the idea is to sell covid as a product, using controversial comments and actions from our government and public figures as ways to market it.
As I stated previously, the pandemic and the response by the government, specifically conferences or comments by senior figures in some cases has been so unbelievable in itself that there really isn’t much need to dramatise it, simply giving those comments to the viewers is enough to make them realise how awful it is. For example, Sir Patrick Vallance saying “If we can keep deaths below 20,000 we will have done very well in this epidemic.” which could be used in itself to gain a response, however using it to seem to back up a product makes the comment seem even worse and really highlights the dreadful nature of it.
By selling Covid as the product with government comments being used as the marketing strategy, it illustrates this idea that in a sense the government have sold us their unproven and in some cases wrong strategies to Covid and therefor led to thousands of lives being lost, so the idea draws attention and points the finger towards the government.
Target Audience
The target audience initially was just the general public, looking to draw attention to the governments handling of the virus from a point of view of all ages and all walks of life. Theo advised me to choose a more specific target audience which would allow me to make better choices in terms of what quotes to use and what the visual style would be.
I chose to choose 18-30 year olds, specifically the type of people who go online or use social media often, who would constantly see media regarding Covid and the government, specifically social media such as twitter or facebook where the government and their response to the virus is spoken about, and any comments or quotes from MP’s is always posted and slandered. If these quotes are to be used within the design, I wanted to ensure the target audience would get the irony and understand the focus of it.
Tone of Voice
Its vital that I ensure the correct tone of voice is used throughout the design, the irony in the comments and the seriousness of the comments regarding a deadly virus can’t be underplayed, so I need to ensure the comments and any other copywriting is clearly exaggerated so it is obvious that I’m trying to point out the lack of respect for the virus and deaths rather than making the virus out to be a good thing as a whole.
Ben Jackson 