Diego de la Maza on ‘preparedness, resilience and community in the face of adversity’
The Deutsch LA executive VP, head of production writes about fighting vaccine misinformation.
Koichiko
Ad Age is marking Pride Month 2023 with our Honoring Creative Excellence package, in which LGBTQ+ creators revisit some of their favorite projects. (Read the introduction here.) This week, our guest editor Lisa Sherman turns the spotlight to Diego de la Maza, executive VP, head of production at Deutsch LA. Here, de la Maza writes about fighting vaccine misinformation.
I’ve produced several campaigns for the Ad Council, but one really exemplifies the importance of preparedness, resilience and community in the face of adversity.
As production unions and regulators continue to lift COVID-19 restrictions, it’s surreal to think back to the early days of the pandemic when there was widespread confusion and fear as people and communities found themselves grappling with unprecedented changes to their daily lives. Commercial productions came to a screeching halt as leaders scrambled to figure out what were safe and acceptable processes and protocols. Live-action shoots were canceled as agencies and brands shifted to alternative methods of creating content. I remember sitting at my dining room table (which has become my official at-home office) and thinking, How the hell are we going to move past this endless sea of user-generated mobile video and re-edited footage?
As vaccines for the virus emerged, the Ad Council was instrumental in fighting vaccine misinformation and launched various programs to encourage vaccine confidence and slow the spread of COVID-19. In the summer of 2021, the Ad Council and Deutsch LA partnered to create a film series aimed at creating honest conversations between vaccinated and unvaccinated people. The films featured real people in loving relationships who happened to disagree on the COVID-19 vaccine. We aimed at finding a diverse group, from same-sex partners to best friends and even siblings. The results were powerful and emotional films that drove hesitant and misinformed young adults to platforms that provided facts concerning the virus and available vaccines.
The entire process was extremely delicate. We were speaking to real people about a very personal health-related matter at an extremely polarized and politically charged time. There were so many challenges: filming non-vaccinated individuals in an enclosed stage, PPO considerations, people dropping out, contentious moments between couples and statewide regulations that were changing daily.
