When the Mother of the Nation Became a Mother

How I made an ad about New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern's baby

The Beehive Baby Print ad. Credits: Executive Creative Director: Regan Grafton. Copywriter: William Sidnam. Art Director: Tim Thach. Group Account Director: Maggie Antone. Retoucher: Jamie Wright. Photographer: Luke Harvey. Designer: Angela Burnell. Designer: Danny Carlsen: Christ Hotchin. Marketing Manager: Mark White. Social Media Manager: Angela Monaghan

When Jacinda Ardern was Prime Minister of New Zealand, she was a rock star of global politics. So now that she’s left the stage, I thought it would be nice to look back on an ad I made about her — or more accurately, her baby daughter, Neve Te Aroha Ardern Gayford.

During my first week at Ogilvy in 2018, Jacinda — as she’s known in New Zealand — had just announced that she was pregnant. Following the news, one of my creative directors suggested we try to come up with ideas for a topical ad about ‘Cindy’, as she referred to the PM. We had Kimberly-Clark as one of our clients, and Huggies, their brand of nappies (or diapers, as they’re known elsewhere) seemed like the perfect fit for the campaign.

As I had just arrived at the agency, I was keen to make a good impression on my creative directors, who had recently come over from a major New York agency. Especially as I was still on a short-term contract at that time and didn’t know if I could stay at the agency beyond three months.

And so during my first weekend at my next job, I spent an afternoon rattling my brain for something half decent. I knew there were bound to be some good ideas out there, but I just couldn’t figure…