Counter Covid is helping pubs across the Victorian capital city.
Independent creative agency By All Means is encouraging punters to help pubs stay afloat and counter COVID-19 simply by ordering a counter meal.
Countercovid.com.au not only provides Melburnians with an online directory of pubs offering takeaway or delivered counter meals, but, with the help of supporting partner, Moon Dog Brewing, offers punters a free tinny of Old Mate Pale Ale with every counter-y ordered.
"While many restaurants were able to make the logical pivot to takeaway, pubs weren’t exactly top-of-mind for people ordering dinner," By All Means creative partner Ed Howley says.
"We decided that needed to change, because the thought of any of these amazing places not reopening on the other side of this thing was making us feel physically ill.
"As the lockdowns drag on, we’re all craving the simple pleasures. Counter Covid is a way of having a pub experience in your
own living room, while helping to ensure your favourite local is still there on the other side of this thing."
By All Means creative partner Toby Cummings says the agency has received tremendous support for the initiative.
"We’ve been absolutely thrilled with the support we’ve received, from Moon Dog who’ve been so generous with their delicious beer, Plakkit who’ve blanketed the city with our posters, through to Broadsheet, The Age and Channel Nine who ran a 4 minute story on the initiative on the 6 o’clock news last Friday night!" Cummings says.
"It’s been a great coming together of the community in what is a god-awful time for all of us. I don’t know about you, but being able to sit at the bar and have a beer and a meal at my favourite pub sometime soon is one of the things keeping me going at this point!"
One of the twenty-or-so participating publicans, Guy David from The Empress Hotel in Fitzroy North, says that the lockdowns have been hard for the entire hospitality industry, but particularly for pubs.
"It’s been a bloody nightmare to be honest: shut, open, shut. But Counter Covid’s been a huge morale booster," David says.
"Just to know that people out there are thinking of us. But, most importantly, it’s driving orders through the kitchen so, if you’ll excuse me, I’ve gotta jump in my car to drop off a few parmas."
