Larry got the word from top-down management to come up with a sizzling social distancing ad for their dating app. He felt the daunting task mocking him to be clever, to step out of his box and come up with something that really popped. Stepping outside his home for a brief walk in a nearby park, he was super aware of the few people out walking, too. They all were like magnets, repelling each other even though they wanted to veer closer to talk and exchange stories. He certainly did. It was tiring being home by himself all the time. Teleconferencing with co-workers only went so far. Mostly he wanted to tell someone about his day, to hear about theirs.
At home, he wrote down words, sketched ideas in his notebook. Two people looking to meet, to tell each other about their day, but wanting more than email, text or even Instagram. They see each other out and about in the mostly deserted streets, one on either side of the street. They are lonely, they wear masks, they long to reach out in some way.
Then what? Larry said aloud and got up to pace about his house. It helped him get the creative juices flowing. In his mind, the two people pause and gaze at one another across the street. They give a small, tentative wave. Then their pelvic bowls glowed, become gleaming gold singing bowls. Surprised by the image, Larry returned to his desk to sketch it a bit further.
Back in the day when he could do such things, he took a workshop on Pelvic Bowl Drumming, an offshoot of singing bowl technique. He remembered the instructor had a singing bowl to use for demonstration, then, after they all were shown various positions the pelvic bowl could assume, they were directed in how to visualize they were drumming the inside of the pelvic bowl to various music selections. He saw the glowing pelvic bowls, the two people longing to meet holding imaginary padded sticks. One of them tapped the inside of their pelvic bowl, producing a vibrational tone that the other person embellished upon, and slowly they danced and drummed their very core, releasing energy like radio waves between them.
Larry flashed onto a memory of watching a movie about prohibition. The people who gathered to dance and drink in illegal speakeasies were pursuing something similar; a craving to let loose with others. That’s it, Larry said aloud, getting up to pace again. The ad needs to show that we can still effectively date, even from a distance. It’s as simple as playing our pelvic bowl drums from across the street!
Larry roughed up a storyboard, sent it along the management chain, then sat in the silence of his home to wait for a response.
