My first introduction to the idea of 3D printing came in 2010 when I read this great little gem of a book written by an advertising exec. For the life of me, I can’t remember the name or the author. Sad, I know. But Andy Spitzer, who’s now the Creative Director at GSW lent it to me once while we were working together and there were some great stories about Nike and other big brands but one thing that struck me is that this agency had procured a 3D printer – ‘way back when’. Now either they were completely visionary or they had way too much money on their hands but I just remember thinking how cool that was. And now of course 3D printing is becoming much more mainstream – and we’re seeing loads of potential applications in the med device space. But we haven’t seen a lot of it in advertising and/or promotion yet.
This month, Huggies launched a new Counting Down the Days campaign, which of course has incredibly moving stories of moms as they dream about their little babes to be. But the one episode (I can’t even call it a commercial) that moved me to tears was the one that they shot in Brazil with a mother who is blind. The story follows the mother as she thinks about her baby – all of the things that she wants to show him, for him to feel, smell, taste and touch. And then it transitions into the OB office where her physician is doing an ultrasound. He describes what he sees on the screen and then unbeknownst to her, prints it out in 3D. He hands it to her and she – and probably everyone on the set sobs as she ‘sees’ her yet to be born son for the first time.
This campaign is brilliant – yes it touches on the heartstrings and it makes use of some really cool, ‘it’ technology. But more than that, it positions the brand so beautifully as the one that helps a mom hug her baby – even when she can’t.
If you haven’t the campaign yet, check it out below!
