When you’re getting cooked alive on hot tar, with nothing between you and the sun, hand sanitizer isn’t exactly a high-priority item.
When you have a crew that never sets foot indoors, you don’t exactly order your masks in bulk.
Add to that roofing is a young man’s game. You need to be hardy to carry shingles up ladders with nails in your teeth.
So the average roofer isn’t what you’d consider a high-risk candidate for the complications of COVID.
So it’s not a stretch to understand why a lot of them would think that COVID messaging doesn’t apply to them.
Around May 2021, construction workers working multiple job sites and spreading the virus was a big concern. Vaccine hesitancy between brands was at its zenith. An anti-vax movement was growing.
If roofers were going to get their shots, they needed a message that spoke directly to them.
Roofers are in their twenties and early thirties for the most part. It’s not uncommon at that age for some to live with their parents. They’re young enough to still see their grandparents.
The average roofer doesn’t need to fear COVID. However, when their parents get hit with a strain they brought home, that’s when it gets scary. Roofers don’t need a vaccine for themselves—they need it to protect the ones they love.
An interesting brief for sure. And very topical of the 2020 / 2021 Coronavirus pandemic.
The ad ran on posters at job sites and social media.
It was also just featured in Lurzer’s Archive.
