Johns Hopkins Medicine Releases a Lighthearted Campaign That Boosts Spirits During the Pandemic

Shawn Van Horn, carpenter, Johns Hopkins Medicine

“Hey, there’s a pandemic going on!” writes Peter Hochstein, crackerjack copywriter and regular SHCM contributor.

“Hospital workers are supposed to look harassed, grave, and ready to collapse from exhaustion, right? That’s not quite the way the communicators and staff at Johns Hopkins Medicine saw it. Result? Internet views by the — no, not by the thousands, by multiples of tens of thousands — along with a big boost in staff morale.”

Read on for an excerpt of Hochstein’s new article about the campaign.

Let’s start with Shawn Van Horn. He’s not the kind of employee most hospitals tend to feature in their online video advertising. He’s part of the carpentry staff, a regular blue-collar kind of guy, and he’s talking about what he’s been doing lately — helping with various kinds of construction necessitated at Johns Hopkins Medicine by the COVID-19 pandemic.

“There’s about 18 guys in our shop,” Van Horn says, “and we’ve been working, you know, 14 to 16 hours a day. And then when I get off of work, I pretty much eat and go to sleep.”

But then a grin flickers and spreads across his face. “Of course, coffee in the morning helps,” he says.

And right at that moment, he somehow telegraphs that he’s going to be all right, and that probably everything else is eventually going to be all right, too.

Van Horn stars in one of at least 18 different videos (the number changes as new contributions are produced), most of them roughly 90 seconds long. They’re all part of a series called “Extraordinary People/Extraordinary Moments” in which Johns Hopkins Medicine employees — from doctors to medical technicians to maintenance people — discuss what they do to support patients, the hospital system, and their fellow staff members during the pandemic.

To learn more about the series and see some of the videos — and maybe wind up a little happier than you started out — check out the full article now:

While the National Mood Is Grim, Internet Campaign at Johns Hopkins Medicine Goes Just a Tad Upbeat, Building Staff Morale While Standing Out from the Crowd

Best regards,
Matt Humphrey
President