For Father’s Day, Walmart set out to build long-term affinity with Black families, and that required more than another seasonal retail message.

We recognized that fathers as a whole, and Black dads in particular, had too often been mischaracterized, reduced to tired stereotypes that painted them as uninvolved or absent. Those narratives didn’t reflect reality. So we made a deliberate choice to challenge them by inviting communities to experience a portrayal of fatherhood rooted in lived truth.

Instead of telling people, we showed them.

Partnering with Martian Blueberry, the studio behind The Boondocks, we created an epic, animated ode that reframed fatherhood through the lens of heroism. Not the capes-and-combat kind, but the everyday kind. The kind that shows up early, stays late, and answers the call without hesitation.

The work celebrated a dad’s real superpower: being there. Day in and day out. In big moments and small ones alike.