Director Jakob Strom–who took a break from the business to find himself as a filmmaker and ended up making a jarring piece that now carries added relevance given recent and ongoing news about sexual harassment of women–has signed with Cultivate.Media for representation in the U.S.
Strom’s film, “Dear Daddy,” has been viewed millions of times around the world since it first appeared in 2015. It centers on a letter to a father from his unborn daughter. Starting off as a warm portrait of expectant parents, it quickly segues in a litany of horrors this girl will experience over the course of her life at the hands of boys and men. “I know you will protect me from lions, tigers, guns, cars or even sushi, without even thinking about the danger to your own life,” says the woman announcer, playing the role of the daughter. “But dear Daddy, I will be born a girl. Please do everything you can so that that won’t stay the greatest danger of all.”
Created by the Norwegian agency Schjaerven for CARE Norway, the film was part of a worldwide campaign to highlight abuse against women. Released on social media, it went viral in a week and since then has been viewed over 300 million times worldwide and translated into ten languages. It’s scored not only with audiences but with awards shows, too, winning Gold and Silver Lions in Cannes; the White Pencil at D&AD, the Grand Prize Award at the New York Festivals and honors from Clio, Cresta, London International and Eurobest.
“Dear Daddy” attests to Strom’s ability to tell highly emotional stories in a visual style. Another example is his spot for the Scandinavian grocery chain Meny, “Real Passion,” in which a man who works for the store is seen preparing many of the items it offers each day, connected through a series of vignettes to a tradition of artisanal purveyors who share his exacting standards.
Now via Cultivate.Media, Strom gains the support and career building expertise of managing director and EP Mark Thomas as well as national reach via the company’s strategic alliance with NY-based Click 3X which covers combination live-action/VFX jobs and a co-production arrangement spanning both coasts.
Agency roots
Strom’s career in advertising began after he spent four years in San Francisco studying advertising and design at the Academy of Art University. He returned to Sweden and landed an art director’s job at TBWA, where he worked for the next seven years on a wide range of accounts. But he found himself most comfortable while on set, and thus made the leap into production, initially working as an assistant to director Fredrik Bond. Strom then worked his way up the production ladder and launched his directorial career with the Swedish production company RAF, founded by Johan Renck and Jonas Åkerlund.
“Dear Daddy” marked a career turnaround for Strom that came about after he spent a year refocusing his energies as a director. While drawn to emotional stories, he found himself working on comedy scripts, thanks to the reputation of his Swedish production house at the time. So he took time off to re-orient his priorities, and during this period he made the CARE film.
“And that changed everything for me,” Strom said. “While I always felt ‘Dear Daddy’ was very Swedish in how it was made and how its story was told, a woman from Spain recently told me how much she liked it. When I asked her why it resonated so much in her culture, she said, ‘Jakob, it’s because you touched people with it.’”
Earlier in his career, Strom had a brief affiliation with GO Film in the U.S. He now returns to the American ad scene with a renewed commitment and a new brand of emotional filmmaking artistry.
“I really feel that I’ve grown as a filmmaker over the past year,” Strom related. “I rediscovered the core of why I wanted to be a director. And I feel stronger and more motivated than ever before to conquer the U.S. market, with Mark’s help.”
