• by Barbara Lippert , Columnist, March 6, 2024

Teenaged girls and their dads seem to be having a moment in advertising and pop culture. They’re bonding more, with less eye-rolling and phone-scrolling  on the younger end, and a deeper search for understanding on both sides.

That’s encouraging.

Perhaps the trend escalated when teen daughters suddenly started watching football with their fathers, waiting for Taylor sightings while also absorbing the fine points of the game.

The first in its delightful “Introductions” series for Hotels.com, "The Artist"  picks up on that connection on parallel levels. There’s the father-daughter match-up, while at the same time Hotels. com acts as a “matchmaker” for travelers and specific hotels. This is a welcome service.

The spot, from Anomaly, with its focus on art and a young artist, caught my eye on regular old CNN, but also will air on social and digital channels internationally. The push is for customers to use the travel company’s mobile app to arrive at the right match.

In the spot, we open on a living room, with a girl buried in her headphones and sketch book, as her dad looks on from the next chair – which, for their lack of closeness, could be on the moon. Cut to having a silent meal together in their kitchen with what looks like a bad AI version of food. The daughter is more interested in sketching than eating.

Directed by Steve Ayson through MJZ/London, the spot is light and comical, and the actor who plays the father has a madly expressive face. So does the daughter, for that matter.

By “taking a nothing day and suddenly making it worthwhile,” Dad decides to do some inspired tapping on his phone with the Hotels.com app, and voila. The two are shown in the lobby of the Hotel Palau Fugit, in Girona, Spain. It’s a magical space built into the husk of a 19^th century palace, redone with a mix of art nouveau and sophisticated contemporary design, and filled with the colorful paintings, sculptures and photographs by local -- along with some better-known -- artists.

Together, the father-daughter team bathe in the art and even act it out, relishing the colorful, beautifully presented food, and ending on a post-spa note, sitting on their room’s balcony in matching toweled heads and striped robes.

“We know a hotel that loves art, too,” a super says.

Providing the perfect sound for this international exploration is a French song from Stereolab, the Anglo-French avant-garde band from the 1990s. They’ve described what they do as “Space Age Bachelor Pad,” and the music adds to the quirky, otherworldly, family exploration vibe -- what my dad used to call the desire to “widen your horizons.”

The hotel so interested me that I Googled it.  Prices per night popped up for three online travel agencies, and oops—it was $182 per night on Hotels.com and $162 on Booking. com.

But all that you can ask of an ad is to get attention, and this one sure hits a sweet spot.