For the team at The Farmer’s Dog, the goal of their first Super Bowl ad was simple: make people cry.
“There was a line in [the brief] that was essentially like, if we don’t make the audience cry, then we’ve failed,” says filmmaker Goh Iromoto, who brought The Farmer’s Dog now-iconic (and Emmy-nominated!) ad “Forever” to life. “I’ll never forget that line. That was a really big driving force, creatively, for me.”
We wanted to know more about the Staff-Picked spot — which was the top-rated ad of the 2023 Super Bowl and has gone on to receive an Emmy nomination (!) — so we sat down with Goh and the creative team at The Farmer’s Dog to find out more about their generous collaborative process, their super-detailed brief, and the dogs that inspired the campaign. Read on for the episode’s key takeaways, or catch the full conversation above.
| Project name | “Forever” | The Farmer’s Dog |
| Stakeholders | Teressa Iezzi, Director of Content/Creative Sophie Forman, Director of Brand Design |
| Campaign objectives | Teressa and Sophie wanted to create an ad that embodied their company rallying cry, “Long Live Dogs.” Historically, the company had focused its advertising on the nitty-gritty details of its product. But Teressa and Sophie knew the Q1 campaign needed to more clearly bring its mission — of helping dogs live longer, happier, healthier lives — to life in a different way. |
| Goals | • Bring to life The Farmer’s Dog mission and rallying cry in an artful, impactful way • Tell an emotional story that extends beyond the details of the product |
| Timeline | The entire campaign took four month from top to tail to execute, with the breakdown of production looking something like this: 🗓️ October | Brief stage 🗓️ November | Goh shares his pitch with the team 🗓️ December | Shoot 🗓️ January | Post-production 🗓️ February | Live |
| Resources | The Farmer’s Dog team worked incredibly closely with Goh to generate the final product. Goh served as creative mastermind and director for the project, while Teressa and Sophie served as key stakeholders in shaping the project. The trio worked closely on the project from start to finish. |
| Key takeaways | • Invest in your brief • Focus on the story, not the product • Great work deserves great promotion |
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