Identity protection company Dashlane captures the hell that is trying to remember your password in its regional Super Bowl ad, created out of recently-named agency of record Lightning Orchard. 

Directed by Sam Brown of Imperial Woodpecker, the spot depicts a man riding a boat on the River Styx on his way to what appears to be an idyllic afterlife. But before he crosses over, ferryman Charon asks him for his password. When the man can’t quite recall it, the boatkeeper offers him alternatives to gain access: The name of his first pet? His kindergarten teacher’s moniker? He remains stumped throughout, and you can guess what happens from there.

The scenario comedically illustrates consumers’ everyday frustrations of managing their security information online. It’s a user-friendly approach to communicating Dashlane’s main offering: convenient password management across all platforms.

The spot, the company’s first on broadcast, will be running during the game in 11 major markets, including New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Dallas and San Francisco. It’s part of a broad consumer push the brand recently began, coinciding with the recent appointment of former Spotify exec Jackie Jantos as VP-brand and following that of former Lyft and Sonos CMO Joy Howard last fall.

In taking this humorous approach, “this is a super tiny category, and for the most part, a lot of the language in this space is scolding and scary,” says Howard. “I just don’t think people respond well to that, and one of the greatest ways to create behavior change is to have a sense of humor. If we can find a way to see the insanity of what we’re putting up with everyday and laugh, then perhaps they’ll be more open to a solution.”

"There aren't many shared cultural references for passwords; we're all just first-generation internet," says Lightning Orchard Chief Creative Officer Jeff Kling. "So we just tried to envision the ultimate password fail."

Howard says she and her team had considered a national ad buy for the game, but after speaking with other marketers who had experience running Super Bowl spots both nationally and regionally, Dashlane decided to go with the latter. 

“It made me think, let’s make a great, high-quality spot and get in the cities that matter [for our target] and with the money we save from a national buy, we can continue to flesh out our story,” she says, adding that the cost savings are enough to get the company five weeks of media time after the Super Bowl. The Big Game spot is just the first of others to roll out, she says.