With Mother’s Day around two weeks away, McCann New York launched a new “What It Takes To Protect” campaign for Lysol, centered around a 60-second spot entitled “Protect Like A Mother” which takes a look at some of the animal kingdom’s more fierce maternal protectors.
The spot opens on a bear leading a human child across the crosswalk in front of her school, clearly a stand-in for mom. When a car ventures to0 close to the girl, stopping short right in front of her, the bear rears up and roars in anger. As the spot goes on it depicts other animals as symbolic stand-ins for protective mothers, including a condor extending a wing to protect a boy from the rain, an elephant scaring off a bully and a lioness providing a place for a sleepy girl to rest her head.
It all leads to the message, “Protect like a mother. It’s what you do. It’s what we do,” followed by the brand logo and tagline, “What it takes to protect.” While the lead-in to the tagline is perhaps a bit too reminiscent of a certain Geico effort, the message is a nice way to connect the brand to Mother’s Day and parents more broadly, as Lysol helps protect their children from bacteria.
It’s certainly a welcome reprieve from the usual saccharine Mother’s Day fare, while still making an emotional connection. In addition to the spot, which launched yesterday, the campaign also includes digital and social components. There’s also an interactive exhibit which will run over Mother’s Day weekend in Brooklyn Bridge Park, featuring a look at how mothers (both human and animal) protect their children. According to a release in LBB, it will “include large scale animal installations that kids can interact with” and “moms and kids will be invited to have their images captured and become a part of the exhibit.”
Credits:
CHIEF CREATIVE OFFICER: Tom Murphy & Sean Bryan
CREATIVE DIRECTOR: Erin Wendel, Lauren McCrindle
COPYWRITER: Susan Young, Daniel Colburn
ART DIRECTOR: Jesse Yowell
EXECUTIVE CREATIVE DIRECTOR: Priti Kapoor
GROUP ACCOUNT DIRECTOR: Chioma Aduba
EXECUTIVE PRODUCER: Christine Lane (Innovation), Winslow Dennis
PRODUCER: (Innovation) Phoebe Chao
STRATEGY DIRECTOR: Amanda Shapiro
ACCOUNT EXECUTIVE: Nicole Pressman
PROJECT MANAGER: (Senior) Renata Bankowski
SENIOR PRODUCER: (Innovation) Matthew Arrow
ACCOUNT SUPERVISOR: Amber Trimble
CHIEF PRODUCTION OFFICER: Nathy Aviram
ASSISTANT ACCOUNT EXECUTIVE: Leia Brown
GLOBAL EXECUTIVE CREATIVE DIRECTOR: John Mescall
EXECUTIVE ART PRODUCER: Andrea Kaye
EXECUTIVE MUSIC DIRECTOR: Eric Johnson
MUSIC PRODUCER: Dan Gross
EXECUTIVE STRATEGY DIRECTOR: Erica Yahr
GLOBAL STRATEGY DIRECTOR: Sarah Watson
GLOBAL BUSINESS LEAD: Volker Ast
GLOBAL ACCOUNT EXECUTIVE: Arielle Kroloff
OFFLINE EDITOR: Jon Grover
EDIT COMPANY: Cut and Run
POST PRODUCTION / VFX: Framestore
PRODUCTION COMPANY: Framestore, (Exhibit) Tool
DIRECTOR: Tom Routson