By Sarah Cascone
You may have noticed a theme for the daily Google Doodles of the past two weeks: each one acknowledged a different group of essential workers who remain on the front lines of the coronavirus pandemic, keeping society going as others self-isolate and work from home.
“As COVID-19 continues to impact communities around the world, essential workers have stepped up in unprecedented ways—including putting their own lives at risk—to provide services that keep our society moving forward in these tough times,” Jessica Yu, the Doodle team lead, told Artnet News in an email.
“Heroic efforts deserve to be recognized and honored, and we hope our Doodle series shows our gratitude for these amazing people.”
On most days, Google releases a new Doodle, reworking its logo to honor holidays, historic figures or events, or other occasions such as the Olympic Games or the World Cup.
The most recent set of Doodles are animated gifs in which Google sends some love to essential workers.
“We purposely used the first and last letters of our logo to ensure characters in every Doodle were practicing social distancing,” Yu said.
Today, the internet giant unveiled the 10th drawing in the series, whch acknowledges teachers and childcare workers.
Google previously paid tribute to scientific researchers; doctors, nurses, and medical professionals; first responders; custodial and sanitation workers; farmworkers and farmers; grocers; public transportation workers; delivery workers; and food-service employees.
Cascone, S. (2020, April 17). “Google Is Using Its Doodle Art Series to Salute Workers on the Pandemic’s Front Lines-and Make a Point About Social Distancing, Too.”
https://news.artnet.com/art-world/google-doodle-essential-workers-1837851
Analysis–
Everyone uses Google and sees the Google doodle. So when Google decided to dedicate a few doodles to thanking different essential workers, it was successful. I love what Google did. It was a great way to reach millions of people and remind them to be thankful for essential workers and also to social distance. I think it was clever that they decided to animate the doodle. And only animating the G and E, while allowing oogl to be static was a clever way of promoting social distancing.
This artwork is relevant because it is an art piece that focuses on supporting essential workers in the transportation sector. I think art like this is especially effective, in part that it is so simple, but also because it can easily reach so many people. Large companies should do this more often to show appreciation of those putting their lives at risk and educating the community on these topics and more.
