Will Ferrell Highlights Phone Addiction in Common Sense Campaign

As our smartphone addiction continues to grow, Goodby Silverstein & Partners have created a blackly humorous campaign for Common Sense Media highlighting exactly how intrusive mobile devices have become during important family events. 

Coinciding with the release of the brand's annual media study - which highlights the increase in time spent with devices - the campaign stars Hollywood funnyman Will Ferrell and riffs on a scenario familiar to any family. There they are, sitting down at the end of a long day to a home-cooked meal at the dining table, and someone just won't get off their phone. Only instead of a surly teenager or a Peppa Pig-obsessed toddler... it's a parent.

Made up of five 30- and 15-second spots, directed by Biscuit Filmworks' Clay Weiner, Device Free Dinner launches with Cat Filter [top], where a family competitively mourns the loss of their father, who's become more dedicated to his social media presence than family dinners.

The rest of the ads - Basket, Clout and Like - portray his exasperated wife and kids' attempts to curb their dad's obsession with tactics such as placing all phones in a special basket. The series culminates in Attention, which will run exclusively on US YouTube channel Funny or Die.

The comedy may be black, but the statistics revealed by Common Senses's survey are even darker: 42 per cent of children aged 0-8 years have their own tablet device, while the average amount of time spent with mobile devices has skyrocketed from five minutes a day in 2011 to 48 in 2017 - a nearly ten-fold increase.

Sounds like we should all be making a bit more use of the 'phone-basket' at dinner...