Is Joseph The Father? Nativity Heads to 2017 Talk Show in Paternity Test Ad

In its pilot advertising effort, Home Paternity has tapped Chattanooga-based agency Humanaut to promote a high-quality, affordable DNA testing kit that can be conducted in the privacy of your own home.

The cheeky 3:30 minute long-form ad tackles the most famous paternity case of all time—the Immaculate Conception—and reimagines how the age-old Christmas story would play out on a daytime talk show. Virgin Mary appears on the Maury-esque Who’s Your Daddy? to discuss the dubious details of her child’s paternity. Joseph of Nazareth is there to tell his side of the story, and in an interesting twist, he backs up Mary’s claim of divine conception. “I had a dream in which a very pretty man told me I’m not the father,” Joseph says, referring to the Angel Gabriel. The boisterous audience responds skeptically by chanting, “Chump! Chump! Chump!” Amidst the chaos, the host announces that Home Paternity will determine whether or not God is the baby daddy.

“Clearly we had a lot of fun with this. The goal was to create a Holiday campaign that both religious and nonreligious people could laugh at and appreciate,” says David Littlejohn, CCO of Humanaut. “We hope we equally offended and touched the hearts of everyone in time for Christmas.”

Home Paternity kit can be ordered online and conducted at home. After collecting DNA, users mail their swabs to the accredited lab and receive results online. The results are based on 21 markers, many of which are used by the FBI to establish human identity testing. The test also uses the same technology that real talk shows rely upon to settle paternity disputes.

 

The video will run on Facebook and YouTube over the holidays.