Table 3.

Examples of potentially powerful communications materials on COVID-19

Name	Concept	Theory of change	Source
Corona Virus Alert	People need to learn about new virus and how to respond.	Educational, but with a catchy song making the message memorable; seeing everyone play/sing the song can promote new norms of behaviour.	Bobi Wine and Nubian Li (Ugandan singers)
Ping Pong Balls	Visual demonstration of effect of physical distancing on transmission.	Seeing consequences instantaneously at a ‘population’ level is more comprehensible to our visually-oriented brains.	Ohio State Department of Health
Komboni Housewives	People who wash hands are ‘one of us’.	Neighbours may gossip about you if you do not wash your hands, but they would be wrong!	Zambia Ministry of Health/CIDRZ/LSHTM
‘Unstoppables’	We should praise some people for violating the new norms.	Truck drivers move constantly from place to place, getting close to each other, but are delivering vital resources to those that need them.	Iveco (Ogilvy agency)
‘Play for the world’	People who exercise at home are heroic for ensuring they do not expose others.	Celebrating personal hardship as socially valuable makes people more likely to avoid going back into social contexts.	Nike
‘Spoiler’ campaign	Get people to avoid public places by putting up billboards that ‘spoil’ plot-points on popular shows.	People will not want to be exposed to these ‘spoilers’ and so will stay home where they belong.	Miami Ad School (student-designed campaign)
Universidade do Futebol	Uncomfortable reminder of moments when footballers refused to shake hands.	While refusing to shake hands may seem rude, nowadays people are actually showing their social conscience.	Liberdade agency