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The film is the first piece of a bigger campaign that not only celebrates stepfathers but importantly, sheds light on the larger topic of remarriage in the Arab world.
The spot, conceptualized and developed by the Leo Burnett team in Dubai, tells the story of a child who goes through the stages of fear, disgust, angst, and confusion against an evil creature who is going to rob him of his mother’s love, the warmth of his home, and everything that he holds dear. But through the course of the film, the child’s views about the monster start changing, as he finally accepts the creature - his stepdad.
The film ends with a message – stepdads are the dads who step up.
The track behind the film is an original soundtrack, written and composed for this film.
Titled “the lighthouse and the boat”, the song is told through the metaphor of a lighthouse and a boat, encompassing the relationship between two people - a stepfather and a son - two worlds apart, trying to fill a missing gap in their life.
A song of pain, anxiety, angst, the need for belonging, for connection and love, that we all feel in any deep life-long relationships that we share with someone else. In life, both stepfathers and sons, are the lighthouses to each other as well as the boats to each other, finding their way to each other, amidst the stormy tides and the endless darkness of the sea.
The film's objective and metaphor is the highlight the fact that erasing painful memories might be one way to achieve hapiness but so is having the courage to make beautiful memories with someone new.
The broader initiative has involved a content series by a prominent psychologist – Dr. Saliha Afridi - around the journey of remarriage, news features about the topic, as well as social content to create awareness and drive support for the topic.
Home Centre is a renowned furniture retailer in the Middle East with a brand purpose of “enabling every home to tell its own unique story”.
The brand often focuses on stories in homes across the Middle East that aren’t told. It has spoken about single moms and adoption in the past, and this time, it is tackling the taboo around remarriage and stepfathers. 15% of homes in the Middle East are homes that are of mixed families, owing to remarriages. But, women marrying again is often not well-perceived because of the weight of social and cultural prejudices. No brand and no media has ever delved intosuch a topic. There was a gap that needed to be addressed. And Home Centre stepped up beautifully.
Credits
Brand: Home Centre
Siddarth Sivaprakash: Head of Marketing, Home Centre
Atharv Ruparel, Hassan Khan: Marketing Team, Home Centre
Creative Agency: Leo Burnett MEA (Middle East & Africa) Dubai
Chief Executive Officer - Publicis Groupe MENAT: Bassel Kakish
Chief Creative Officer: Kalpesh Patankar
Chief Strategy Officer - Publicis Groupe MENAT: Tahaab Rais
Associate Creative Director Creative: Farhan Siddiqui
Head of Production: Shereen Mostafa
Chief Executive Officer - Publicis Communications: Nathalie Gevresse
Business Lead - Communications Consultancy: Vicky Kriplani
Senior Producer: Judy Lamaa
Senior Manager - Communications Consultancy: Maria Jabbour
Manager - Communications Consultancy: Nahla Jaber
Head of Strategy & Insights: Aakriti Goel
Senior Manager - Strategy & Insights: Anna Sadykova
Production Company: Prodigious ME
Chief Executive Officer: Sami Saleh
Film Director: Tahaab Rais
Production Lead: Myriam Abi Wardeh
Producer: Ralph Matar
Director of Photography: Aeyaz Hasn
Assistant Director: Vanessa Mghames
Production Manager: George Khalaf
Production Coordinator: Nour Helou
Production Assistants: Rami Noureddine, Nader Al Zohbi
Art Director: Bora Batur
Wardrobe Stylist: Windy Ishak
Child: Tanmay Rishi Shah
The Creature: Mascot Maker, Cristy, Larry and Mujahid
Gear: Gamma Engineering
Gaffer: Sohail Iftikar
Key Grip: Ibrahim Touma
Hair & Makeup: Natalie Tufenkjian
Location: Bassel Alzoubi
BTS: Ralph Jigger
Post Production: Optix ME
Post Production Lead: Nayla Chacra
Post Producer: Megan Markel
Editor (Cold Cutz): Neda Ahmed
Online Supervisor: Eddy Farah
Online Artist: Rita Mechedjian, Priyanka Bhatheji
Colorist (LZRD): Karim Mira
Music: Magma Music Agency
Lyricist and songwriter: Tahaab Rais
Music Creative Director: Seppl Kretz
Music Supervisor: Michael Bertoldini
Composers: 22ghosts
Sound Design: Bram Van Bergen
Vocalist: Joseph Bills
