When HP reached out looking for our aspect on what the American Family was, I felt two things. One, I was like, YES! I would love to share our family, our values and so on. What a cool experience right?! Family is one of the most important things in my life, in the world really. I couldn’t pass that up. And two, HP is an amazing company. It’s actually the computer I do all my blogging on. I got rid of my Mac a few years ago and have only been using this HP Envy Computer and just love it.

After a few rounds of interviews, a video submission and questionnaire, we made it in. I didn’t really know what to expect from the video shoot except I knew it was going to be a long day of filming with other families from the Chicagoland area. 

When we got to the shooting location, I realized this campaign was going to be a bigger deal than I initially thought. There was hair, makeup, and a LOT of equipment. It definitely felt like we were on a movie set. Probably will be the only time I will experience something like that again 🙂

As the families started rolling in, there was every combination of mom, dad and children you could possibly think of. Everything from two moms, two dads, interracial marriages, adoptive children and so on. Not ONE of the 13 families looked the same. And the CRAZY part of it all, we all immediately clicked together. The kids just instantly hit it off, ran around together and the adults shared our journeys from marriage to parenthood and so on. We instantly connected so much so, the producers were completely shocked we didn’t know each other beforehand. But nope! All strangers. We talked about where we came from, our backgrounds, values, and our views on what the “American Family” truly is. We all appeared so different, but really, weren’t at all. Just moms, dads, working men and women, all just trying to be the best and do what’s right for our kids.

But then the whole reason why we came together started. The social experiment began. The families all spread out in a room and strangers walked in to pick who they believed the stereotypical “All American Family Portrait” was. They were to pick moms, dads and kids who they thought made up a family together. I was chosen with the same white dad and children several times. I remember by the second time I was picked, I started to tear up. Is this how everyone thought it should be? What would Manny think? It really made me think about a lot and how people might view us together.

Once we did this a few times, we reunited with our families and the strangers got to see who are real family members were. It was pretty emotional. There were definitely tears from several people in the room. It proves you just never know. Not everything is what “you think” or “expect” it to be. Remember, how I was picked with a white man a few times? Well, he was married to another man with an adopted baby. Definitely an eye opening experiment.

After a long day of shooting (and no nap for Noah), we came home emotionally drained. It really opened our eyes. More than ever, Manny and I have talked about not only our values and how we see other families, but how we want Noah and our baby girl to view the world. I don’t think the saying, “don’t judge a book by it’s cover” has ever been more accurate.

This entire campaign was for their HP Envy 5055 Wireless All-in-One Photo Printer and the family photos were printed right there on the spot. It was fast and the quality of the prints is really good. They are hung on our wall now. We have never had a family portrait done and we will do it all over again when our baby girl arrives this December. Now, we will print them using our HP printer 🙂 

So, with all that being said, here is the video! I hope you guys like it and maybe it will make you think about a few things.

Full Video
HP Website 
HP Facebook

As always thanks for reading. This is a truly meaningful experience and I’m glad I can share it with you all.

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Until next time,

Christine

There are some affiliated links in this post, but all views and opinions are on my own