NSFW Warning: This post contains a photograph of someone making an obscene gesture with their hand.
It’s been 7 months since COVID was labeled a pandemic. Since that time, travel initially came to a virtual halt. Although it’s improved since then, with upwards of a million people flying on select days, our numbers are still nothing compared to a year ago.
In fact, the only numbers that seem to be going up are how many people have the virus.
Although the U.S. has never had a good handle on COVID, other countries had previously been doing relatively well – well enough for travel bubbles to be established and people to begin traveling again. The 26 European countries that comprise the Schengen Zone, for example, had been allowed to travel between each other for several months.
Unfortunately, perhaps with the colder months and more people staying inside, even the countries that had been doing well are showing upticks in COVID cases. Germany is an excellent example. In March, they were looking at a number of nearly 7,000 new cases per day, but were able to stamp that down to the mid-triple digits over the summer. But in late summer, their numbers started to rise again; they’re currently approaching 8,000 new cases per day.
Most people in Berlin are doing as they should and wearing masks; however there are some who refuse. They, of course, ruin it for everybody else, putting people at risk. So the city has a new advertising campaign that gets right to the point:
PC: Visit Berlin
The ad says, “Up yours to those who don’t wear a mask — we obey the corona rules.”
The campaign, including the ad, will be run in the city through March 2021.
Berliners are known for being direct, so it’s the perfect ad for them.
“Most Berliners and our guests respect and follow the corona rules, but some people don’t,” Visit Berlin spokesman Christian Tänzler said to BBC News. “These people risk the lives of older people and people from the at-risk community. We wanted to give attention to this problem. For this reason we have chosen this provocative motif.”
However, not all Berliners appreciate the ad, particularly some politicians.
“The situation is too serious for stupid jokes,” the local leader of Angela Merkel’s CDU, Kai Wegner, said to The Guardian. Meanwhile, the center-right Free Democrats’ general secretary said the campaign was, “neither funny nor unconventional but arrogant and offensive.” One independent delegate has even filed charges over the ad for, “incitement of the people.”
I guess it’s made its point.
If you went to Berlin (well, if anyone from the U.S. could go to Berlin right now) and saw an ad like that, what would you think of it?
Feature Photo: Pixabay
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#stayhealthy #staysafe #washyourhands #wearamask
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This post first appeared on Your Mileage May Vary
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