Graco "I Got You Babe"

Rick Wayne cut the Graco film before he shot it.

Working from existing Graco spots, stock footage and library music, he assembled a sizzle so the room could see the picture in his head. Then he went out and made the actual film against it. He has described the method in one line: see the film before you shoot it, then go shoot it. The rough cut said yes before a single frame of the real thing existed.

The campaign is called The Safest Place Outside Your Arms, and the film is a love letter to the first year of parenthood. Client is Graco, part of Newell Brands. Agency is Brand Imagination Group. Wayne directs.

The casting brief was narrow on purpose. Real parents, real kids, cast for the look in the eye when someone hands you a baby. That is not a diversity of talent choice or a naturalism affectation. It is a structural decision that determines what the camera can go looking for. Wayne has said that some of the most powerful moments he has captured came from people who had never been on a set, because the moment was simply true.

The camera language follows from the casting. Anamorphic. Body close. A long lens on the holds. The governing idea is that the camera belongs to the parent, not to an observer of the parent, which is why the film reads as intimate rather than as documentary coverage of intimacy. The product is demonstrated through real moments rather than presented, on the logic that showing is how you attach a brand to a feeling.

The music is a modern reimagining of Sonny and Cher's "I Got You Babe," reinterpreting the original message for a parent and an infant instead of two lovers. It is the kind of choice that lodges in the head for weeks, which is the point.

The commercial results were reported on the campaign case study, including a 3.5 point category share gain in Q4 2025, sourced to Circana, and the number one position in registry demand for car seats and strollers across Amazon, Babylist, Target and Walmart.

The director's :60 runs 1:05.