Mother Daughter Bond Survives Social Distancing for WhatsApp Campaign

WhatsApp's latest campaign, created by AlmapBBDO, celebrates the way people have come to use the app to nurture a connection with friends and relatives during social distancing and self-isolation measures during the Covid-19 pandemic. The spot was shot under special conditions and will launch to the Brazilian market first.

The film was directed by Stink's Fridman Sisters and explores how WhatsApp enables people to connect with one another by portraying the small ritual of a mother and daughter who share daily images of rays of sunshine from their respective windows.

The actresses starring in the film live in the same house as members of the production team. Directors the Fridman Sisters filmed their own mother while the DOP, Pierre de Kerchove, filmed his wife in the character of the daughter. Carried out via WhatsApp, the production happened strictly within guidelines issued by the World Health Organization. Post Production also relied on collaboration at a distance.

“This is not only a script based on a true story. It’s a script that sprang out of a premise: what we could film these days without resembling an amateurproduction”, says AlmapBBDO’s creative director Pedro Corbett. “We focused on stories of people alone at their homes and that didn't call for much elaborate producing, only relying on what was already there to make the movie as realistic as possible. Although production budget was not big, the quality has been the best possible. It is surprising how the hardest times can bring out the best solutions.”

The spot also features a 50's song, 'What a Difference a Day Makes', as explains Cris Pinheiro, partner-producer at PUNCH Audio.