I didn’t want to use the name, but it seemed misleading and potentially too emotional for the sporty among us to title this post “March Madness.”

It felt like the U.S. shut down 48 hours ago because of the virus. And like any good marketer, I’ve been on my phone, watching the ads shift. I wanted to show off some good ones I’ve seen just in case you need some ideas in the coming weeks. Let’s be real, we’re all trying to figure out how to pivot and shift and these are the first people I noticed doing a great job.

The thing that all of these have in common is:

They’re addressing the problem.

If you were to write a Brandscript for all of us right now, the problem would be “there’s a virus that we don’t want to catch and/or pass on to our loved ones.” So we’re at home, on our phones, sitting on our stash of hastily bought rations and substitutes for toilet paper. And here are some brands offering solutions.

Chipotle

I want burritos. The problem is, there’s a virus out there that I don’t want to catch. Solution: Order the burrito STRAIGHT TO YOUR DOOR.

The Shop Forward

I think this shirt is brilliant. You can literally “buy the t-shirt” and it goes to a cause a lot of people were voicing concern about on social yesterday. Schools are closed and we’re worried about the kids who rely on those meals. Boom - problem solved in this t-shirt purchase. Take my money.

Winc

The woman behind me at Costco bought 3 cases of wine on Thursday. If that wasn’t you, this sponsored story was a sight for sore eyes. 4 bottles of wine and free shipping? I signed up.

Wine.com

I’m not really even a huge wine drinker, so this second ad 2 hours later just made me laugh. I guess signing up for Winc labeled me. But here’s another great one — we’re all stuck at home! Send wine! The discount here is interesting too, likely trying to help folks who are worried about their stock portfolio feel like they can still be a wine connoisseur even in a bear market.

kiwico

Every parent in this country is trying to figure out what they’re going to do to keep their children occupied, engaged and educated while they’re trying to also work from home. It’s overwhelming. But not with KiwiCo!

Parnassus Books

I have huge plans and expectations for my reading list during this time. But my beloved library just closed down. Solution: Support a local bookstore and get free shipping! Win-win-win.

But what they didn’t say…

Aside from the lighthearted way these ads are handling the problem we’re all unexpectedly faced with, there’s another extremely interesting thing they have in common: not one of them use the keyword “coronavirus” or “COVID-19.” They don’t have to. We all know what they’re talking about. We’re literally all in the same boat. Well, socially distant boats, but the same nonetheless.

I left a meeting Thursday at about 2:30pm and until Saturday at 8pm, easily 75% of the emails that hit my inbox had “COVID-19” or “coronavirus” in the subject line. We are all freaked out. We’re all scared. I love that the ads that I was served were able to speak to my problem without reminding me that I should panic-buy 3 cases of wine.

Have you seen any good ads? What about organic posts? Drop them in the comments or send them to my email — I’m on a mission to find the best ones! katie@murphy.marketing