A viral ‘stay at home’ video challenge which originated in Watford, has gained the attention of people overseas as far to as Cape Town and Sydney.

The videos released daily are a compilation of people doing kick-ups and appearing to pass the ball onto the next person, as a way to promote the message for people to stay at home and minimise the spread of Covid-19.

It all started last Thursday (March 26) when advert director Jacques Salmon published the first video compiling footage from friends, families and others eager to show off their skills.

He explained the idea started as a way for him to encourage others to stay at home, have fun and to get people up through the “power of football”.

Now on day six, the message has gone viral as people from all over the world are sharing their kick-up footage to show their support of people following lockdown measures.

Mr Salmon said: “Part of why I did it was to keep my mind active, and it seems to be taking off as I’m getting lots of clips.

“I put it on Facebook that I had the idea, and from there we had around 40 videos for the first day.

“It’s a good way in keeping active, getting up and building a community – and it’s all driven by UGC (user-generated content).

“I think it’s a nice positive message, there’s a lot of sad news out there at the moment so this can put a smile one people’s faces and be a little distraction.”

Watford Observer:

Jacques Salmon (left) directing an advert involving Marcus Rashford (right)

While he has not been personally affected by the virus, he wishes to encourage people to stay home and support people like his friend working at Northwick Park Hospital in Harrow who is tackling the virus.

Mr Salmon himself is also one of the 750,000 who signed up to be an NHS Volunteer Responder during the pandemic.

Now he is encouraging for even more people to send in their videos to add it the collage videos – which he hopes to continue as regularly as he can during the lockdown period.

He explained: “All you need is any ball, the ball has to come in from the right, have a maximum of four touches and then kicked off to the left-hand side.

“We’re encouraging people to be more creative and have fun with it, we’ve had people dressed up as dinosaurs and pandas.”

This follows a series of similar ‘challenge’ videos spreading across video platform app Tik Tok, which also includes compiling videos of people doing other tasks during this lockdown period.

When not quarantining, Mr Salmon works as a freelance writer and director, including brand adverts working with Liverpool FC, Manchester City and other Premier League teams.

If you wish to take part in spreading the message and want to send your own video, contact Mr Salmon through his Instagram handle @OnSetWithJacques