It's not really grilling season yet. But Kingsford Charcoal wants to push the traditional beginning of summer up a few weeks—to Mother's Day.
The spot below, from DDB San Francisco, paints a gloomy portrait of the traditional Mother's Day experience—i.e., getting dressed up in awful clothes, then fighting traffic to get to a restaurant where you eat food you don't like. Most of the spot has a father talking wearily to his son, giving him a play by play of the drudgery to come. But soon, Mom herself shows up, and she's just as sullen about the miserable chore ahead. Isn't there a better way?
Apparently, it involves grilling—with Kingsford Charcoal, of course. "Make her Mother's Day meal special by making it yourself," says the copy at the end, followed by an amended tagline: "Slow down and grill. For mom."
It's a quirky spot indeed for Mother's Day, casting a bit of a curmudgeonly pall on the weekend. It also, of course, falls into the trap of inventing a problem that doesn't really exist, so the product can swoop in and be the hero. (Is eating at Mom's favorite restaurant really that horrible?) Still, the father's performance is amusing, and the spot might well stand out amid the holiday's traditionally lovey-dovey spots.
If you do choose to grill, and the kid wants to help out, he might have to keep that uncomfortable sweater on. It isn't quite summer yet—it's chilly out there.
CREDITS
Client: The Clorox Company
Product: Kingsford Charcoal
Title: "Sweater"
VP of Marketing: Suzanne Sengelmann
Agency: DDB, San Francisco
Chief Creative Officer: Lisa Bennett
Director of Production: Frank Brooks
Group Creative Director: Mike Andrews
Art Director: Mike Andrews
Copywriter: Daniel Mabe
Agency Senior Producer: Rob Lee
Group Account Director: Vicki Sanders
Account Director: Lindsey Lucero
Production Company: Licorice Tree
Director: Mike Andrews/Daniel Mabe
Producer: Anton Laines
Editorial: Union Editorial
Editor: Nicholas Wayman Harris
VFX/Online: Resolution
Sound Design and Audio Mixing: Union
Sound Designer: Milos
Director of Photography: Richard Henkels