American Greetings: What It Means to Love

Credits & Description:

Brand AMERICAN GREETINGS
Entrant MULLENLOWE BOSTON

MULLENLOWE Boston, USA Entrant Company
MULLENLOWE Boston, USA Idea Creation
PARK PICTURES New York, USA Production
MULLENLOWE Boston, USA PR
MULLENLOWE Boston, USA
Mark Wenneker MullenLowe Boston Chief Creative Officer
Dave Weist MullenLowe Boston Executive Creative Director
Tim Vaccarino MullenLowe Boston Executive Creative Director
Andrea Mileskiewicz MullenLowe Boston Creative Director
Blake Winfree MullenLowe Boston Creative Director
Jessica Grantham MullenLowe New York Senior Art Director
Kristina Saliba MullenLowe Boston Junior Copywriter
Lisa Setten MullenLowe Boston Executive Director of Integrated Production
Zeke Bowman MullenLowe Boston Head of Integrated Production
Danene DiCicco MullenLowe Boston Broadcast Producer
Sarah Brennan-Athas MullenLowe Boston Assistant Broadcast Producer
Lindy Agron MullenLowe Boston Business Affairs Manager
Rebekah Pagis MullenLowe Boston Group Account Director
Penn Clarke MullenLowe Boston Account Director
Hannah Duhaime MullenLowe Boston Account Executive
The Mercadantes Park Pictures Director
Scott Howard Park Pictures Executive Producer
Maya Owings Park Pictures Line Producer
Daniel Mercadante Park Pictures DP
JJ Lask PS260 West Editor
Tara O'Sullivan PS260 Assistant Editor
Laura Patterson PS260 Head of Production
Marlinda Walcott PS260 West Junior Producer
Meg Bailey Zero VFX Producer
Tom Jucarone Sound Lounge Sound Design/Mixer

Entry Summary
Miscommunication is a real problem in almost every relationship. It’s a struggle that extends beyond genders, languages, and cultures. Being able to express what you’re feeling, what you want to say, is hard. Love is hard. But “What it Means to Love” shows that if there’s one thing that can help communicate what really matters, it’s a card.

However, in today's culture, people see cards as an obligation, rather than a way to express themselves. To remind people of the power of a message, we shed light on miscommunication as a real problem cards could help solve. We casted real people in real relationships, complete with real anger, confusion and frustration. By showing real love and its struggles, we underscored the genuine importance of communicating and connecting.

Brief Explanation
In this film, we go through a series of vignettes in which people struggle to communicate what they're really feeling. As miscommunication is a universal problem, we show its manifestation within a variety of relationships: a girlfriend and her boyfriend, a girlfriend and her girlfriend, a son and his elderly father, a mother and her daughter, and two young friends. As miscommunication plays out in each of these relationships, graphics appear over the footage, putting in words what someone is failing to say. It's only until the last scene where these graphics are not needed – a husband communicates exactly what he needs to say with the help of an American Greetings card. There is no struggle to find the words, they're right there on paper. Saying what he feels is what sets this relationship's vignette apart from the others. It makes all the difference.