Carissa Mak, Creative Director 

We shouldn’t spread stigma and shame, we should be informing and empowering.’

It’s 9:12am on a Saturday. I just nursed my 15 week old and put him down for a nap. My four-year-old is watching Cat in the Hat with my husband in our bedroom. I steal away to the bathroom for a quick shower and a few moments of solitude on my phone. That’s when I saw the Frida Mom ad that one of my friends reposted to their stories.

This ad. This. They didn’t get to this ad by way of an elaborate strategy or assessing analytics. Oh hell no. This is a real life glimpse into the postpartum experience, that could only have been created by someone who has been through it and knows exactly what it’s like. It’s real. It’s raw. They decided to just put it out there, this part of motherhood. No big concept, no special effects, no glamour. Just a real, honest moment.

Is it pretty? No. Is it hard to watch? A bit, yes. But it’s the type of ad that we as women need out there. I watched it and have to say that I’ve never related more to an ad. Ever. I teared up. I’ve been there, this exact moment. The mesh undies, the padsicles, the amount of time it takes for just one bathroom trip. As a mom who has just recently gone through this, I’ve never felt more understood.

And for it to be banned from airing during the Oscars, is just an absolute shame. We don’t prepare new mothers enough for what postpartum looks like. I remember after I had my first baby. You focus so much on what birth is going to be like – from taking classes to reading birth stories online. You go into the delivery room feeling like you have a pretty solid idea of what might happen, what could happen. But then you have the baby and it’s like “WTF?!” No one prepares you for what really goes on “down there,” or what that first trip to the bathroom is like. It’s painful, it’s scary, and it’s hellah not pretty. But it’s reality.

When my friends prep for their first child, sure I’ll offer up registry item suggestions, but what I always send – and feel is much more important – is a list of items you need for postpartum, and what to physically expect. Every time I send the list, I get a bewildered reply of “What?! Is this for real?!” It’s real, and the Frida Mom ad is a perfect slice of a non-sugar-coated reality.

As advertisers, we can and should do better with shining a light on the real, the unsexy, the honest — because it’s so very important that we don’t only present glossy truths that people will then think are the norm. We shouldn’t spread stigma and shame, we should be informing and empowering. It’s an absolute shame that ABC banned this ad from the Oscars, but hopefully in doing so it will get even more of the attention that it deserves. Bravo Frida Mom.

‘I’ve never felt more understood’: Parent on Oscar-banned Frida Mom ad’

Campaign US

https://www.campaignlive.com/article/ive-felt-understood-parent-oscar-banned-frida-mom-ad/1673461

Claire Eisenberg, Director of Corporate Communications

Cause and Affect features CPers who pursue unique side hustles⏤ affecting others through their passion and inspiring us to live Defiantly Human.

There are people who are passionate about giving a voice to histories that matter today, stories that can change our future, people like our very own Director of Creative Services, Barry Frechette. These are the people who highlight good deeds that have gone unnoticed in order to inspire others to make an impact.  Outside of his day job at Connelly Partners, Barry made the leap into documentary films to shine a light on the incredible untold stories of our veterans and those who do good against the odds.

“I never made a documentary film before I made this one. But all my life, in the ad industry, you tell stories or snippets of stories… I’m just fascinated by people. And their stories. And I love storytelling. I love the medium. Armed with this experience and passion, I made the leap into the unknown.”

Barry Frechette (co-director, executive producer) and Max Esposito (co-director, director of photography, editor) created Paper Lanterns. The critically acclaimed documentary is about Normand Brissette (Lowell, MA) and Ralph Neal (Corbin, KY), two American POWs killed in Hiroshima, and Shigeaki Mori, a Japanese survivor who refused to let them be forgotten. The horrors they witnessed. The families that struggled to find the truth. And one man’s effort to give them the gift of closure.

“It’s not about going back and looking for apologies for the bombing, it’s about moving forward. There are tough moments in the film that we left in, but they are important because we want to show that there is redemption in all this. After all these years, we can still figure shit out. It’s opened doors for me where I get to hear other people’s stories and help them too.”

Paper Lanterns gave a voice to a community whose stories would have gone untold. Mr. Mori greatly impacted the last few days of Normand and Ralph’s lives. After surviving the initial bombing in Hiroshima, they were like so many others in the wake of the devastating attack⏤ without support or resources. And to think, what took place in Japan in 1945, came to light when Barry was looking through a photo album at his Grandmother’s house halfway around the world in Massachusetts. Paper Lanterns not only celebrates Mr. Mori’s compassionate heroism, but also inspires reconciliation representing our two nations as people who are not our past, but humans working together for a brighter tomorrow.

Barry recognizes and meets the challenge of honoring and protecting a lived truth that is not his own. While Barry worked on this project outside of Connelly Partners, he’s put into practice the agency’s purpose to be Defiantly Human⏤ prioritizing and defending empathy, compassion and the unique stories of humans.

Barry was recognized at the 2019 AdClub Rosoff Awards for his work to make a positive impact through passion. For more, visit https://theadclub.org/rosoff2019/.