In March, 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic reached Pennsylvania and the first case was confirmed on March 6. Measures to slow the spread of this disease went into effect on March 19 and Pennsylvania was officially placed under the stay-at-home order.

Mitigation strategies among residents proved effective, but Pennsylvania had to do more to raise awareness and education. As the entire state was in Green Phase, Governor Wolf reinforced his commitment to protecting Pennsylvanians against COVID-19 by expanding the mask order and the practice of social distancing.  By July 6, 2020, every county in the commonwealth had been affected, and the number of individual deaths had peaked at 6,754.

Unsafe working conditions, language barriers, and prevalence of certain vulnerable chronic conditions prevalent among Hispanics may have been a few of the attributing factors in the disproportionate number of Hispanics impacted by the disease. We believed there were other reasons. Our opinion was that Latinos knew what they had to do to protect themselves and others when leaving their homes – mask up, keep social distance, and wash their hands frequently. Yet they weren’t fully recognizing the personal consequences that could impact them closer to home; to family. Our response was to send a slightly stronger reminder and one that would resonate to many Latino residents, regardless of their nationalities. Launch of a statewide multi-channel media campaign was rolled out to ramp up awareness of masking, social distancing and washing hands frequently. Using the common cultural pillar of family, our message was inspired by a nostalgic reminder heard often, then and now, in Latino homes – Por lo que más quieras (transcreation: for goodness sake).