Your Father was produced as part of Campbell’s new Real, Real, Life Campaign to show an honest portrayal of how Campbell’s products fit in our consumers’ lives in a real way.

In Your Father, Larry Sullivan uses the voice of Darth Vader to help him feed his real-life son, Cooper, a spoonful of Campbell’s Star Wars soup. By announcing, “Cooper! I am your father!” David does his best but ultimately needs the help of his life partner Dave to step in and add, “No, no, no. I am your father.” An entertained Cooper succumbs and finally eats his lunch.

The work was not meant to inspire audiences to be perfect or ideal, but rather celebrate them just the way they are.

We partnered with Star Wars to launch a national campaign featuring our two very real-real dads--Larry and David--and their adopted son Cooper. Featuring gay men in a national campaign was not only a first for Campbell’s, but also a first for the Star Wars franchise as well. And while Your Father started with a script, most of what was used in the final commercial was real-life interaction between members of the family.

We would be lying if we said Your Father was originally welcomed with open arms. The negative backlash began with OneMillionMoms creating an online petition encouraging mothers everywhere to boycott the brand. But what began as backlash soon turned into support from moms, influencers and news outlets everywhere.

Your Father was recently inducted into the Smithsonian Museum under historic advertising. Larry and David were named People magazine’s “Sexiest Spokesmen Alive,” and they were also honored for their heroics at the LA Impact awards.

In the end, the campaign generated 449.5 million impressions and over 5.7 million influencer impressions.

Campbell’s soup volume was up 4.3% (vs previous 3 year decline at -2.9%)

During launch, Star Wars SKUS was up 4X compared to 2014.