Creative Works: Father's Day edition, featuring HP, Dove, Busch and more

HP’s marketing reinvention, as a brand, is centered on creating and delivering emotional resonance based on insights. The key insight behind the new spot, ‘Dad’ finds that in the age of the smartphone and social media we’re more connected than ever, but also lonelier than ever.

We’re taking more photos, but we usually only experience them for fleeting moments online. Printed photos, however, due to their tangible, lasting nature, help us stay connected in deeper, more meaningful ways, according to HP.

The ‘Dad’ spot shows a young father holding his infant son, introducing him to his grandfather. We see the child reaching out and touching the hands and face of the older man as the narration says, “he’s my dad, just like I’m your dad…and without him, we wouldn’t be here.”

The camera pulls back again to show that the two are actually looking at a photo of the grandfather, who has since passed away. It’s a touching moment that shows that technology has a human side that can bring people together.

Busch beer has taken over an entire town in upstate New York to drive a message home that one dad just wants Busch beer for Father’s Day.

In a short film Busch shows that it will no longer stand idly by as hard-working, loyal dads are inundated with the bad, the weird and the unwanted gifts usually associated with Father’s Day, like ties, goofy hats and other half-hearted efforts. All Dad wants for Father’s Day is an ice-cold beer with his family, and Busch is helping to spread the word. 

The film then introduces Joe Gray: father of three and resident of Cherry Valley, NY (population: 1,200). While he appreciates the effort his family goes to each year for Father’s Day, all he really wants is to crack open his favorite ice-cold beer and relax. So, Busch lobbied and campaigned in Cherry Valley to make sure that’s exactly what happened.

The brand, with the help of Deutsch NY, outfitted buildings, store-fronts and streets with signs to remind Gray’s family to do their dad right this year and get that guy some Busch. There are yard signs pleading with his sons to get their father Busch, plus cross-street banners, signs on the side of buildings, and even table tents at the diner. Interviews with locals, including the pastor, confirm that yes, Joe Gray does want beer for Father’s Day.

In time for Father's Day, Dove Men+Care is supporting paternity leave to stress the importance of children having equal time with both parents.

A campaign championing greater access to paternity leave policies to enable men around the world to be the parents they want to be, called #DearFutureDads, has been launched by the company, which says that it is essential to recognize the contribution both parents make to a child’s upbringing. When men have an expanded opportunity to care, the effect is positive and wide reaching. 

The initial movement features a dedicated website and supporting campaign video.

The digital resources hub on the Dove Men+Care website includes information and guidance for men who are considering taking paternity leave. With contributions from Josh Levs and Gary Barker, the site details the benefits of taking leave and how to approach the issue of paternity leave in the workplace. 

The supporting video shows a variety of dads from around the globe, talking about fatherhood and the importance of being with their children.

Birds Eye is building on its #Solidaritea campaign, championing parenting and putting an end to ‘parent shaming’. The new campaign showing solidarity with parents is breaking in the run up to Father’s Day on June 17th.
 
The campaign is the next installment in an initiative developed with Recipe. It reflects Birds Eye’s commitment to supporting all hard-working and fun-loving parents, as the brand that’s always there whenever needed.
 
In 2017 Birds Eye launched #Solidaritea in support of a group of mummy bloggers who had been condemned by the Daily Mail as ‘slummy mummies’.  It was a rallying cry for all to stand in support of British parents by celebrating their (sometimes) thankless parenting moments.
 
One year on, Birds Eye is celebrating the role of dads - their desire to work just as hard and be just as involved in parenting as mums, 365 days of the year – with an online film, ‘More than just a day’, created by Recipe.
 
The aim is to challenge traditional and antiquated roles of ‘dadding’ by featuring a broad cross-section of dad roles from same-sex parents, single dads, hands-on dads, stay-at-home dads to women and grandparents that fulfil the role of dads too. It is also passionate and celebratory, showing the good bits, the bad bits, the funny bits, the challenging bits and - above all else – the cherished moments of parenting.
 
‘More than just a day’ features a group of daddy bloggers delivering a poem on a school stage, highlighting the issues that are important to them. It also addresses Birds Eye’s role – one of support, not judgement, ending with the sign off: “We’re here. #solidaritea”.
 
The poem tackles meaningful parenting subjects – some are serious, some less serious, but delivered with compassion and attitude. Lines from “It’s 365, tough, glorious, cherished days”, “It’s the best thing I ever did”, to “I’m a punching bag day” encapsulate the dynamic joys and challenges of being a modern dad.
 
All of the ‘dads’ featured are parents/grandparents – LadBaby, The Life of Riley, The Dad Network, Daddy & Dad and Ben Telford (husband of Clemmie Telford; one of last year’s #Solidaritea mummy bloggers). The script was co-developed, based on many of their personal experiences. 

Preganews Pregnancy Detection Card, manufactured and marketed by Mankind Pharmaceuticals is the leading brand in its category. For years, it has been bringing ‘good news’ to the mom-to-be.
 
To take the relationship with its user further, Preganews has just launched a new campaign #QuitBeforeYouStart specifically targeted at couples planning a family. The toll of young smokers in India and the world over is increasing swiftly. Usually women stop smoking before they start planning a baby. But in the case of men, it is very rare that they quit. Through the study done by National Health Society, United Kingdom, it is observed that men who continue smoking while planning a family, run the risk of damaging the DNA of the fetus permanently. Highlighting this issue Prega News urges the ‘would be fathers’ to quit smoking before they start planning a family.
 
#QuitBeforeYouStart is an urge from Preganews to the fathers to quit smoking for a healthy child. Commenting on the campaign, Mr. Rajeev Juneja, CEO, Mankind Pharma said that “Prega News is already the leading brand in the category. It is now the responsibility of the brand to take up relevant issues concerning pregnancy. For a healthy child it is the responsibility of both the mother and father to quit smoking. This takes our corporate philosophy of serving lives further”.
 
The campaign has been conceptualized and executed by ADK Fortune, a WPP agency. Akashneel Dasgupta, NCD, ADK Fortune adds “Planning a family is a huge decision taken by the couple. People are aware about the side-effects of mother’s smoking at the time of pregnancy. But when it comes to men there is a lack of awareness that even the father’s habit of smoking can harm the fetus. With this campaign we would like to break this misconception and highlight the fact that it is equally important for both the partners to quit smoking. If the father is smoking at the time of conceiving, it might damage the DNA of the child, leading to disability for the rest of the child’s life. Through our campaign #QuitBeforeYouStart we make a humble request to quit smoking before it is too late”.
 
The campaign is timed around Father’s Day and World No Tobacco Day, which would be supported with other communication stimuli apart from the film. More about the campaign can be obtained from the Prega News website and Facebook page.

In recent years, there’s been an uprising of viral videos celebrating father figures – from a woman asking her stepfather to adopt her to a teacher who has a personalized handshake with each of his students. In celebration of the impact of these non-traditional ‘dads,’ Michelob Ultra has created an emotional film, titled Dear #Ultradad, that enabled three real people to pay a touching tribute to their father figures.
 
The video features real people from around the country including fitness influencer and NFL player Dale Moss and Brent Decker, his high school basketball coach from South Dakota; NYC-based dancer Mary Callahan and Lloyd Culbreath, her dance instructor and mentor Brooke Carrel, a woman who lost her father at the age of 12, and her stepfather David Terpstra.
 
Michelob Ultra is also encouraging consumers 21+ to share tributes to their own father figures on social media using the #Ultradad hashtag. When consumers share a tribute to their father figure, they have the power to do good and give back to those who play this very role. For each post shared, Michelob Ultra will donate $1 to Up2Us Sports.

Just in time for Father’s Day, 'Race' was created by brand agency Figliulo&Partners (F&P) for American Century Investments. The spot shows a man attempting to get into shape, struggling but ultimately improving. At the end it is revealed that he’s not training for himself, but to keep up with his daughter – in order to record her competing in a race.

The spot kicks off the new 'Be More Invested' campaign, which embodies American Century’s core values and the belief that when you’re more invested in something, you go the extra mile, which is how the firm approaches offering financial solutions for their client’s needs. The father’s commitment in “Race” is a way to show that “when you’re more invested, you do more”– just like American Century does for its clients. The national campaign will include TV, online video, social and digital placement.

For Father’s Day 2018, Hill Holliday took the opportunity to listen to the voices of fathers and sons as they answer the question, “What makes good man in 2018?” The agency collected their frank, often emotional answers in a video. 

A special thank you to all the fathers and sons who participated, and thank you to all the different types of fathers out there, for everything you do.