In this speculative brief Dove Men wanted to create real change and get men, families and employers championing paternity leave for dads everywhere. What it means to be a good dad is evolving, and today’s dads are playing a more active, hands on role in their child’s upbringing. In the US only 15% of men have access to paid leave. Even when dads do have access to leave, most don’t take their full time off because of pressure from employers and the culture generally. The more men hear about paternity leave and its major benefits, the more likely they will take it. To achieve this we showcased the importance of paternity leave by creating the Dove Men+Care Paternity Highlights. A sports style reel highlighting real dads on paternity leave and the moments they were able to be apart of.
We aired these highlights on sports channels across the country and followed them up with “post paternity” interviews where we asked the dads their favourite moments from their paternity leave and questions about why they believe it is important for other dads across the country to take leave as well.
We partnered with sport accounts on instagram like HouseOfHighlights and posted our paternity highlights on their pages.
We asked men to take the paternity leave pledge and post their very own highlights to inspire others to do the same with the hashtag #dovepaternityhighlights.
We picked the top shared highlights and made individual custom championship paternity leave banners embroidered with the winning dads names. We raised these paternity leave banners into the rafters of their favourite sports teams stadiums, elevating paternity leave to championship levels.
