In Poignant Ad, Hasbro Sees Doll Play as Precursor to Elder Care

From combing a doll’s hair as a child, to combing an aging parent’s hair as an adult—this isn’t typical fodder for a toy ad for kids 2-5, but here we are.

“Ageless Care” promotes Hasbro’s Baby Alive doll, which grows up to four inches, depending on the care it receives from a child.

From Ogilvy Brazil, the ad begins in a restaurant parking lot with an adult woman feeding her father. Next, a mother and son nestle under an oversized table. At an amusement park, a young girl, clad in a pink raincoat, combs her baby doll’s hair.

“When a child learns to care, it lasts forever,” says the ad, as the girl ages—but is still wearing that raincoat—and brushes her mother’s hair.

The spot closes with youthful versions of the families at the beginning of the ad; this time it’s a young girl feeding her baby doll in the backseat and a young boy kissing his doll.

M.C. Escher, the Dutch artist of illusions, served as inspiration for the ad. Producer Modernista built a giant table and chairs, so the adults would appear kid size sitting on the floor. 

“During our brainstorming sessions, some personal issues came up that we were experiencing as human beings living in a pandemic, such as the worries about our parents and other aged relatives,” says Félix Del Valle, chief creative officer at Ogilvy Brazil. “It was very challenging for everybody to think about the best ways to keep our beloved senior relatives safe. Bringing the process of aging to the table was the trigger to raise awareness and sensitize people about the importance of taking care of each other.”

The campaign is running on pay TV, Facebook, YouTube and WhatsApp. In addition, social media influencers will share stories of affection with their parents online.

The ad targets parents of young kids, but at the same time the agency created a media strategy to also reach the grandparents of the children. 

Baby Alive’s brand positioning in Brazil changed in 2019 to “We All Can Care,” with a spot that illustrated the positive qualities kids develop when playing with dolls, like empathy, caring and responsibility. “If a girl can discover so much taking care of a doll, why couldn’t a boy?” asks the ad.

“For this new campaign, we were looking for some new problems that the act of playing with a doll could help to solve,” says Del Valle.

CREDITS 

Agency: Ogilvy Brazil
Title: Cuidar não tem idade/ Ageless Care 
Client: Hasbro Brasil
Chief Creative Officer: Félix del Valle
Head of Art: Ricardo Leme Lopes 
Executive Creative Director: Márcio Fritzen 
Creative Director: Teco Cipriano e Mathias Almeida
Art Director: Teco Cipriano, Rodolfo Krupka
Copywriter: Mathias Almeida, Vinícius Biss
Head of Social: Gabriel Araujo 
Account: Denise Caruso, Felipe Obara, Renata Flores e Giovanna Giannini
Media: Vanessa Giannotti, Silvia Tajiki, Paloma Braga e Yasmin Zein
Planning: Thais Frazão, Thiago Krafzik, Isabela Cury, Luisa Lancellotti, Maysa De Paula e Arthur Sousa
Data Intelligence: Viviane Sbrana, Gustavo Campos e Nathalia Moraes
RTV: Juliana Henriques e Fabíola Thomal
Client Approval: Kellen Silveiro, Andrea Buzzi, Marina Uccelli e Juliana Barnabe

FILM PRODUCER 
Film production company: Modernista Creative Producers
Scene director: Ana Barcellos
Creative director: Alexandre Lucas
Photography director: Alexandre Baxter Khoury
Director assistant: Isadora Lerman
Executive Director: Marcelo Monteiro E Alexandre Lucas
Account team: Iara Demartini E Nicole Bonnet
Production coordinator: Pedro Gomes e Rodrigo Moreira
Production director: Alcides Da Costa Junior
Production assistant: João Paulo Bortotti
Art Director: José Reis De Barros
Object Production: Bárbara Moraes De Oliveira
Cast Production:  Ana Carolina Bom Conselho Maurício
Stylist: Ana Carolina Bom Conselho Maurício
Post-production Coordinator: Júlia Motta e Lucas Espeto
Film Montage Natacha Vassou
Color: Osmar Junior
Post-Production: Zefini Pós-produção
3D: Safari Post Production

AUDIO PRODUCER 
Sound Production Company: S de Samba
Account:: Adriana Pavan Samara
Art Direction:  Wilson Simoninha e Jair Oliveira
Soundtrack Production:  Diego Guimarães e Pedro Caldas
Sound mixing and Final cut:  Antônio Arruda e Flávio Gondim
Locution (voice): Renata Leão