Cry if you want to. Nivea’s Mother’s Day story feels real and it tackles a touchy subject. It’s an honest and very relatable story about a young woman who has been forced to move back home with her mum. Director, Sune Sorensen has juggled honesty and subtlety brilliantly, to create a film that explores the complex mother-daughter relationship without being anything like a “cardboard cutout”.
It is also devoid of any product. It relies entirely on its emotional appeal to draw people to the brand.
Sorensen commented, “It’s a great testament to the brand and agency that they want to tell a story without clouding the message in any way and with such respect for the subtleties and nuances of the narrative. For me, the agency and client’s bravery are obvious across the board – from the tone, choice of framing and film language, actors, and following through with a song we all felt perfectly completed the story – usually, filmmaking is a compromise. This didn’t feel like one.
“I was immediately attracted to the inherent conflicts of the premise, both internal as well as external. A daughter, who wants to live her life independently and to whom it feels like a defeat that she has to move back home. A mother, who has her own life now and struggles to ‘speak the same language’ or even understand her daughter’s young adult needs.”
London actors, Hilary Hamilton and Melissa Lowe, stood out for Sorensen. He explained, “This was not an easy story for any actor, because we were constantly balancing on a knife’s edge of ‘juvenile’ or ‘rude’ behaviour, so we needed complex and amazing personalities. Someone we understand and like in equal measure – after all, Melissa is constantly pushing Hilary away because everything she does makes her feel like an adolescent, inadvertently making her act exactly like one. Meanwhile, Hilary is a modern mother, who has needs of her own but at the same time sees through her daughter’s defence mechanisms and knows that one day she will need her – and she wants to be there, when that happens.”
The story is underlined by the hit song, Skinny Love, by Birdy. The campaign is part of long-term branding effort from Nivea and Publicis One Touch.
Credits
Director: Sune Sorensen
Represented by AgentZoo
MP & Agent: Martin Bardrum
DOP: Menno Mans –
Represented by Melting Pot Agency
MP & Agent Benoit Renaud: Vanessa Guissin
Agency: Publicis One Touch
Global Executive Creative Director: Axel Grimald
Global Creative Director: Denis Kakazu
Creative Director & Writer: Lucy Titterington
Designer: Finny Nguyen
Global Client Lead: Birgit Wilson
Global Account Director: Dan Ayers
Senior Account Manager: Sarah Redington
Global Digital Strategy Director: Kim Piquet
Global Planning Lead: Tanya Dernaika
Agency Producer: Giacomo Pandolfini
Client: Nivea
Vice President, Masterbrand & Communication: Tobias Collee
Global Director, Brand Communication: Alexander Kruemke
Global Digital Activation Lead: Mariya Decker
Production: Casta Diva Pictures
MP & EP: Fabio Nesi
Producer: Carla Solaro di Monasterolo
Line Producer: Mauro Calevi
Marco Castaldi: Production Manager Set Designer: Francesco Cotone Stylist Eleonora: di Marco
International PR Manager: Ditte Birk
Casting UK: Hammond Cox Casting.
Casting Director / MP: Michael Cox
Casting Assistants: Charlotte Lancaster & Lydia McKinley
Post-Production: Casta Diva Post Production
Editor: Luca Angeleri
Music: Skinny Love, written by Justin Verner for Bon Iver. Original recording by Bon Iver. Re-recorded by Birdy (2011)
Sound: Sonido Antro
Supervisor & Producer: Lucas Duque
Storyboard Artist: Marco Letizia
