JWT uses the Norman Rockwell painting “Freedom From Want” as a springboard to examine the modern American family in its spot for Tylenol launching the brand’s “For What Matters Most” campaign.
“Normal Rockwell painted America’s story for sixty-plus years,” begins Abigail Rockwell — Norman’s granddaughter — at the beginning of the ad before remarking on how “our definition of family is expanding.” The ad then asks, “What would a Norman Rockwell holiday look like today?” before answering with three families as examples. There’s the Japanese Yee Hoshida family, who view the hot pot served for dinner as metaphor of the blending of cultures and generations that go in to a modern family; the blended family Beser Carr Schneider Musich, who “happen to be four parents trying to raise our children”; and the African American Garza family, whose eyebrow ring-wearing grandmother serves up Cornish hens rather than the traditional turkey for Thanksgiving. All three families describe what makes them unique and “what matters most,” with each, of course, pointing to family. It’s all, of course, very sentimental, which is only appropriate given the Rockwell connection.
The spot saw a soft release on Thanksgiving, and JWT released a separate video for the Yee Hoshida family on Tuesday (featured after the jump). Videos for the other two families will roll out soon for the holiday season. The videos mark the launch of JWT’s “Freedom From Want” campaign for the brand, which Manoj Raghunandanan, senior director on the Tylenol business, told AdAge “presage a broader media effort in 2015.”
Raghunandanan told that publication that the campaign “reflects serving our consumers and how unique and diverse they are,” and that he didn’t worry about a conservative backlash over the ad’s depiction of a blended family which includes a lesbian couple.
“If you look at what we’ve stood for as a brand, it’s always been so much more than pain relief,” he added. “Caring for people and going beyond their pain is what makes Tylenol Tylenol.”