Anything but Flowers Sends the Wrong Message on Valentine's Day, Says Teleflora

Shocker: Teleflora believes "Flowers Say It Best" on Valentine's Day.

To bolster that position, the company delivers three silly spots showing what can happen when you send other gifts—inappropriate gifts—on Feb. 14.

First up, an unbeawwwably talky teddy bear works the letter W to expwess its etewwwnal wuv:

Wwwhoa, go hibernate, you furry freak!

Next, a novelty mug gets clingy. Don't you hate when that happens?

Finally, a box of chocolates makes with the (sickly) sweet talk:

That sex-ay voice is wrong on so many levels, ye-aaaah, girrrl!

"Gifting around any holiday is stressful, but Valentine's Day is even more anxiety-inducing because you want to say the right thing and say it in a way that the recipient will love," says Mayumi Tatsuta, executive creative director at Wonderful Agency, the in-house creative shop at Teleflora's parent company. "We took the everyday humor route to bring some levity but also relatability."

The holiday's growing inclusivity informed the creative direction. "It's gone beyond romantic love—with Galentine's Day, celebrating the love for your family and pets, and even co-workers," Tatsuta says. "With that trend, the more traditional Valentine's Day gifts may not be saying exactly what you want to say. We wanted to remind people that you can't go wrong with a Teleflora bouquet."

From there, the team "had this idea about how flowers say it best, which then spawned the silly notion of: 'What are other gifts really saying?'" she says. "We were also looking for a big, scalable idea, as we knew we wanted to create content targeted at different audiences, given all the unique ways people celebrate Feb. 14."

To wit: "We saw that millennial females were overindexing on Galentine's Day gifts, so we created content that would be relevant to them and target them on social," Tatsuta says. "To target the male audience, we wanted to test against two of the more popular gifts that men give around this holiday—namely, stuffed animals and candy."

The 15-second and 6-second videos will run across YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest and Twitter.
 
And as for Valentine's Day bears, well, better to go with the strong, silent type.

CREDITS

Brand: Teleflora
President: Jeff Bennett
Vice President, Consumer Marketing: Danielle Mason
Senior Manager, Social Media and Brand: Jeff Pearlman

Agency: Wonderful Agency
President: Michael Perdigao
Chief Creative Officer: Bobby Pearce
Executive Creative Director: Mayumi Tatsuta
Executive Producer: Thomas Sann
Producer: Thomas Anderson
Associate Creative Director, Art Director: Shaun Wright
Creative Director/Copywriter: Alan Snider
Associate Creative Director, Copywriter: Adam Leong

Production Company: REVERIE
Executive Producer/Owner: Rich Pring
Executive Producer/Owner: Cathleen O'Conor Stern
Director: Lorena Medina
Director of Photography: Leo Calzoni
Line Producer: Alex Aguiar
Post Production: VisualCreatures
Editor: Arnold Aldridge, Luis de Leon, Mike Hand
Colorist: Peter Collins
Conform Artist: Sean McAllen
Post Producer: Tita Poe
VFX/Animation: VisualCreatures
VFX Artists: Danny Garcia, Arnold Aldridge, Mike Hand
Mix: LIME
Audio Mixer: Sam Casas