Walmart honors Black super-dads in animated Father’s Day film

Negative stereotypes have long tainted the picture of Black fatherhood. Too often, Black fathers have been portrayed as chronically absent in their children’s lives—uninvolved and uninterested. To push back on that image, Walmart’s Father’s Day campaign portrays Black fathers as super-dads. Created with Chicago-based agency Contender, “The League of Black and Unlimited Dads” features an animated short film that shows how a group of dads answer the call of fatherhood by taking holistic approaches to parenting. Inspired by U.S. Centers of Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) data that says Black fathers are generally more involved in their children’s lives than other fathers, the film (above) and two shorter spots (below) depict how hard-working, professional dads drop their day jobs to handle difficult parenting situations with gentle and patient parenting. Whether the situation is a baking mishap, a bad hair and makeup day or sadness and frustration due to a disability, the league of dads who appropriately hang out together at the barbershop always run to the rescue. The campaign was developed with Martian Blueberry, the award-winning animation studio co-founded by Carl Jones of “The Boondocks” and “Hair Love,” which won Best Animated Short Film at the Academy Awards in 2020. In addition to the film, Walmart has created a hub on its website dedicated to products made by Black dads and other Black creators. Popular Creativity stories from Ad Age: Sign up for our daily Creativity newsletter to see the best stories of the day.

Walmart honors Black super-dads in animated Father’s Day film

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