Ford’s #FinishStrong campaign is kicking into high gear as the company will use the Super Bowl to encourage people to mask up and stay strong during the continuing coronavirus pandemic.
As part of this effort, the company will be running regional Super Bowl ads in coronavirus hot spots of Florida, Texas and Southern California. The automaker will also air commercials in Michigan and Missouri, where they have a “high concentration of employees who cannot work from home.”
Two different commercials will be shown, but they’ll be familiar as the 30 second spot is the same #FinishStrong ad that was released last year. It will be a joined a new 60 second commercial which is largely identical, but features additional footage of events we have missed out on due to the pandemic. This includes weddings, concerts, graduations and, of course, football games.
Also Read: Ford Wants America To Finish Strong, Promotes Face Masks Instead Of Cars
In other news, Ford has unveiled N95 respirators that are clear. Billed as low cost and reusable, the masks will allow other people to see your face.
Besides the obvious social benefits, the masks will allow people with hearing impairments to read lips. This is virtually impossible with current masks, which block a person’s mouth from view.
Ford has received patent-pending approval for the masks and testing of their effectiveness is continuing. However, if everything goes according to plan, the transparent respirators will become available this spring.
Ford has also developed air filtration box fan kits, which are designed to supplement a room’s existing filtration system to further reduce the spread of the coronavirus.
The kits are pretty basic as they consist of an “easy-to-assemble die-cut cardboard base, a 20-inch box fan and a 20x20x4 air filter with a standard minimum efficiency reporting value of 13.” The fan sits on top of the filter and base, and pulls unfiltered air in from above. It then discharges clean air from below.
The kits are designed for use in enclosed areas such as classrooms and modeling has shown that they “reduce the chance of breathing in contaminated aerosols.” The effectiveness depends on the size of the room, but Ford noted an average-sized classroom – of 960 square foot (89.2 square meter) – with two portable air cleaners can “triple the air changes per hour compared to what a building HVAC system alone would clean, refreshing the air 4.5 times per hour.”
Ford plans to donate up to 20,000 air filtration kits and the automaker is also planning to donate an additional 20 million face masks to bring their total up to 120 million overall.
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