Nobody said it would PPEasy

More of a mini-doc than a commercial, this is a heartening look at what can happen when a global crisis encourages private sector forces to work for the public good. 

A collaboration between Kaboom Productions, agency Bang Creative and director duo Plummer/Strauss, the film, This Is a Mask, takes a swift, energetic look at the impressive logistics and teamwork it took to swiftly procure 60 million pieces of PPE for American medical facilities, when stocks were running dangerously low.

The story began when University of California, San Francisco, a major medical provider in the Bay Area, realised the government supply chain of masks, gowns and other PPE was drying up.

A call to the enterprise software company Salesforce set in motion an impressive effort that saw various companies working together amid the turmoil of a pandemic – calling on individuals who were not medical supply specialists to overcome all manner of organisational issues. 

Colour is added to the story by depictions of strategists in lockdown trying to concentrate on knotty problems while domestic chaos rules around them – a toddler attempts to affix a starfish to her dad’s face, a clueless man distracts a woman sweating over a laptop with the priceless, “hey babe, what pan do you use for fajitas?”