The Creature is short form music-driven film by a home furniture retail brand - not a commercial or an ad.

It's a branded content meant to entertain but also open eyes to a new conversation.

As it involves an original music track, written and composed, for the topic of that new conversation, by a brand, it fits this category.

15% of homes in the Middle East are homes that are of mixed families, owing to remarriages.

But, women and men marrying again is seen as a taboo - both cultural and societal.

Not many talk about it, owing to social and cultural prejudices.

And no brand has ever delved into it.

15% of homes in the Middle East are homes with divorced parents.

But remarriage remains a cultural taboo for both women and men alike.

For Home Centre, a leading home and furniture retailer,
we wanted to show that step dads who step up, are the ones who make up broken homes.


The film tells the story of a child who goes through the stages of fear, disgust, angst, and confusion against an evil creature who is in his home, intruding into his life, who is going to rob him of his mother’s love, the warmth of his home, and everything that he holds dear.

But through the course of the film, we see that the child’s views about that creature changes over a period of months, and he finally accepts the creature - his stepdad.

The film ends with a message - stepdads are the dads who step up.

While studying children's drawings from how they saw their stepdads, when they first met them, we saw many drawings of monsters, creatures, aliens and otherworldly nearly grotesque figures.

To share our pov in support of remarriages in the Middle East and to capture attention, we chose to show step dads as the otherworldly creatures most children first saw them as.


To create the Creature, we started off by creating multiple versions of its look based on the kids’ sketches.

We wanted to make the Creature look like a living breathing giant who was always around the kid inside his home.

Someone the kid found repulsive whenever he attempted to connect with him.

The entire suit of the Creature was created locally. Details like hair, head, and shoulder movements were made to look as natural as possible.

We kept the creature faceless on purpose to represent the kids’ perception of stepdads

An original soundtrack, "The lighthouse and the boat", was created for this film.

The song is told through the metaphor of a lighthouse and a boat, encompassing the relationship between two people - a stepfather and a son - two worlds apart, trying to fill a missing gap in their life.

A song of pain, anxiety, angst, the need for belonging, for connection and love, that we all feel in any deep life-long relationships that we share with someone else.

In life, both stepfathers and sons, are the lighthouses to each other as well as the boats to each other, finding their way to each other and finding purpose in each other, amidst the stormy tides and the endless darkness of the sea.

The film sparked a new conversation around remarriage previously unheard of in media across the Middle East.


The film earned love from media:

“Shifting perceptions of remarriage in the Arab world.” (Coffee with America)

“Normalizes non-traditional families in a touching spot.” (Shots)

“An emotive metaphor redefines step dads.” (The Stable Australia)

“Takes on the challenges of remarriage.” (Lovin Dubai)

“A gap that needed to be addressed. And Home Centre stepped up.” (Branding in Asia)

“Really sweet and moving.” (Vimeo Staff Pick Editors)

And it was effective in attracting attention and time from people:

$1.9 million earned media

130+ million views

95% positive sentiments

90% view through rate