Good Oil’s Novemba Directs a Moving Campaign for Amazon & the Ad Council via Academy

Communicating with teens about mental health can be tough and isolating, for young people and for parents. This difficulty prompted The Ad Council and Amazon to collaborate to create When You Can’t Say It, Play It, a new tool which invites parents and caregivers to initiate conversations about emotional wellbeing with young people. When a parent finds a song they want to share with their teen, they can then ask Alexa to send it to them.

Produced by Amazon Ads Innovation Lab, Novemba directed the two-minute short film ‘Muchas Flores’ to promote the bilingual digital experience, resulting in an emotional and deeply felt exploration of a mother and daughter's uneasy attempt at connection. The duo captured nuanced performances, letting silence speak more than words through small gestures, expression and body language that create tension. The two find deeper connection through Ambar Lucid’s song ‘Letter to my Younger Self’ – a touching reminder that music is the universal language.

When You Can’t Say It, Play It is a first of its kind digital experience in both English and Spanish, allowing people to search emotions like ‘happy’ or ‘sad’ prompting a search of Amazons music library containing over 100 million songs. “We know parents and caregivers everywhere have experienced hitting the ‘I’m fine’ barrier,” said Heidi Arthur, Chief Campaign Development Officer at the Ad Council. “We’re proud to once again work with Amazon... to leverage their technologies as a bridge for mental health conversations between parents and teens.”

Find more of Novemba’s work here.

Check out the full video here.