This year has been a rollercoaster ride amid the COVID-19 pandemic, but despite the many struggles faced by the American public, Ford Motor Company is pushing a message to make sure the virus is snuffed out in 2021.
The automaker is rolling out its #FinishStrong campaign to air during college and NFL football games in the first three days of January to replace its F-150 truck ads. The ad, narrated by actor Bryan Cranston, aims to encourage viewers to continue following coronavirus safety guidelines.
"We really were inspired by some of the data we were seeing coming out of the University of Washington, where if we just followed some of these safe COVID protocols and everybody did their part, we're not helpless. We can save more than 50,000 incremental lives," Jim Baumbick, vice president, enterprise product line management, told Cheddar.
At the onset of the pandemic, Ford was one of several American companies tapped to help in the fight against it. The company says it has since produced more than 50,000 ventilators, 1.4 million washable gowns, and nearly 50 million masks.
Furthermore, Ford has pledged to produce 100 million masks in total into 2021, according to Baumbick, who said that it's the very least the manufacturer could do while people on the frontlines work to keep citizens safe.
"These healthcare workers are so inspirational. We can honor them by actually reducing the load on the healthcare system and actually trying to mitigate the transmission of this deadly disease," he explained.
Meanwhile, as the country waits for the COVID-19 vaccines to be more widely available, Baumbick said Ford will do its part in providing doses to workers that request it but will not mandate it as a requirement to continue working.
Health and safety for employees and potential customers are at the top of Ford's list of priorities, Baumbick said, but the company is also committed to improving the health of the environment as it looks to expand its fleet of electric vehicles in the wake of its Mustang Mach-E. He noted that as the electric vehicle market continues to become more crowded, the Mustang is "soon to be followed by the F-150 battery electric vehicle."
"And we just launched our transit battery vehicle. The commercial space is an incredible opportunity to have a big impact, not just to businesses and their overall cost of ownership, but to the environment, which is so central to this transition," Baumbick added.
