To help combat the COVID-19 crisis, Venables Bell & Partners and digital agency Firstborn have partnered to launch a new effort called Facejar–a virtual face-touching “swear jar” that lets people turn accidental beard rubs, eye itches and nose picks during video meetings into money for protective equipment for medical professionals.  The concept is simple: touch your face, donate a dollar. 

The idea originated with VB&P associate creative director Elliot Nordstrom who noticed that despite pleas from the medical community, we are all still touching our faces. And nowhere is this bad habit more apparent than during video conference meetings. 

Facejar uses a custom Snap Cam lens developed by Firstborn to register and count face touches during video meetings on a number of platforms, including Zoom (only on older versions on Mac, thus far), Skype, Google Hangouts, Twitch and Microsoft Teams. After a meeting is over, users can complete the donation by scanning a QR code to donate on Venmo. All proceeds will go to #GetUsPPE, a grassroots organization dedicated to getting personal protective equipment to healthcare workers on the frontlines.

The campaign will be supported by this online video and social content created by “undercover recordings” of video calls and meetings. The video was produced by VB&P’s Lumberyard Productions. The soundtrack is a custom track written by Lumberyard creative director Tyler Hampton, composed and sung by friends of the agency, Reed Campbell and Ana Marcu.

VB&P, Firstborn and #GetUsPPE are also sharing out the lens with influencers and celebrities for their video chats and meetings. Without paid media behind this effort, the team asks folks to “Spread the word. Not the germ.”

Credits

Agency Venables Bell & Partners, San Francisco Paul Venables, founder/chairman; Will McGinness, partner, chief creative officer; Elliot Nordstrom, associate creative director; Dani Saputo, sr. designer; Sasha White, sr. producer; John Principe, social strategist. Production/Editorial Lumberyard Productions Tyler Hampton, creative director; Steve Courtney, Julien de Benedictis, editors; Alisia Perez, assistant editor; Zac Wollons, sr. motion designer; Sasha White, producer; Renee Safir, post producer; Raquel Bedard, director of operations. Music Tyler Hampton, writer; Reed Campbell, Ana Marcu, composer/singers. Audio Rommel Molina, audio engineer; Kate Vadnais, sr. mix/sound design producer. Digital Agency Firstborn, NYC Drew Dahlman, technical director; Tom Lonndo, executive producer; Ivo Ilic, associate developer.

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