Thursday, 26 March 2020 - 5:43pm |
National News

Distance and isolation, New Zealand Police team up with Wellington Paranormal

2 min read

News article photos, audio and videos (2 items)

Paranormal COVID-19 video

New Zealand Police want to make sure that every person in New Zealand right now understands and takes on board all the key messages about Covid19 and self isolation.

“We have a powerful social media following and it’s essential we use it to maximum effect during this challenging period” says Deputy Chief Executive New Zealand Police Jane Archibald. “People have come to expect just a little humour from us, it’s part of our brand, so we wanted to engage with New Zealanders on our social platforms in a campaign style they are used to.”  

“So we’ve teamed up with Wellington Paranormal to share Police and community messages which we hope will reach everyone in the community so they understand they need to be ‘doing the right thing’ around self isolation, and not put themselves in a position where they could ‘pass it on’.”

Police worked with production company Wrestler and Wellington Paranormal to create what is the start of a series of videos. Wellington Paranormal have previously worked with New Zealand Police on the 2018 Police Recruitment video and a series of Road Safety videos.

"Wrestler are tremendously proud to be able to work with NZ Police through this difficult time. Communicating in such an unknown environment is a massive challenge, there's no rule book!” says Ben Foreman, CEO Wrestler. “ For both NZ Police and Wrestler, it's about speaking with empathy and authenticity, while still keeping things entertaining and engaging. It's a fine balance, but luckily we had our mates at Wellington Paranormal to call on, and with a very sanitised studio we were able to whip together some content we feel will inform and entertain the New Zealand public, all while working two  metres apart and in under 48 hours just before the lockdown began"

Wellington Paranormal producer Paul Yates was delighted to jump on board with New Zealand Police and Wrestler to make these ads and help promote this really important message in the battle against Covid19. “I'm rubbish at DIY and have watched everything on Netflix so I was delighted to be asked to have something more useful to do leading up to the lockdown,” says Paul.

"Officers O'Leary and Minogue from the Wellington Paranormal Unit were very keen to help promote the lockdown message because 'Sergeant Maaka our boss told them they had to'. But they really enjoyed recording these messages because it gave them a break from 'chasing ghosts and that'."

For more information on COVID-19 please go to covid19.govt.nz.

ENDS 
Issued by Police Media Centre 

Related downloads

Paranormal COVID-19 video
Paranormal COVID-19 video PNG - 7MB