From flamingos to a stripper, PSA competition finds creative ways to ask Miami to mask up

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    Miami (WFOR) — As coronavirus cases continue to soar in South Florida, it’s more important than ever to wear a mask. But how do you convince Miami to mask up?

Oolite Arts, a local art gallery, had an idea and asked local filmmakers and artists to produce a one minute ‘outside the box’ video on why people should mask up.

It’s a competition that doesn’t mask the truth about the spread of COVID-19. It’s all about stopping it.

They call it Masks Up, Miami and the winner gets a cash prize.

One hundred entries have been narrowed down to five local filmmakers who have all produced 1 minute creative PSA’s on why they think you should mask up.

The public chooses the grand prize winner.

“We’ve chosen five winners and we also gave $1,000 each to seven honorable mentions. But the five public service ones are at oolitearts.org/masksup,” said Dennis Scholl, CEO and President of Oolite Arts,

“You can see them there and you can vote for your favorite one and the winner is going to get an extra thousand dollars, on top of the money we already gave them to make the films.”

One of the PSA’s in the running for the grand prize is called Green Flamingos.

It is about two birds in love who fly over the ocean with their flock until a green, coughing flamingo joins them without a mask.

Then there is The Stripper.

An exotic male dancer has a captive audience, until they realize he isn’t wearing a mask.

CBS4’s Lisa Petrillo laughed and told Scholl she was partial to the stripper video.

“I went and saw them all and said I kind of like the stripper,” she said laughing.

“I cannot lie; I think the stripper may be everyone’s favorite. The funny story about the stripper is there are two versions of it. There’s one version in which he is wearing pants and another he’s, well never mind,” Scholl said joking.

Another titled Everybody In My Family Got COVID… Except Me is a Miami man’s true story of his anti-masker family.

“That’s a true story. When we read that we were like well we have to remind people that just because you know somebody well doesn’t mean you’re going to be OK. So it’s very much a great one-minute documentary that reminds everybody of the dangers,” Scholl explained.

He is encouraging all film fans to get involved and vote for your favorite. It’s a great way for the artists to earn money and for a strong message to be heard.

“So we’d love for you to go to go online and vote for your favorite PSA, whether it’s Lisa’s favorite stripper or the documentary, or the flamingos. There’s lots of them up there and I think you’ll like them all but the winner will get $1,000. Miami you choose them,” said Scholl.

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