Valentine’s Day ads are often filled with overly sentimental imagery and sappy messages. We took a more unexpected approach. The brief was to promote the lifetime guarantee of a Zippo lighter. So instead of featuring happy, adoring couples—we instead showed couples whose flame had gone out. Couples who sit in awkward silence, no longer speaking. Our pay-off line, “With a lifetime guarantee, there’s one flame that’s sure to last.” playfully reinforced the quality of the product and served as a subtle reminder to buy a Valentine’s Day gift that endures.

The photographs take a darkly comedic look at real-life moments that we’ve all seen

before— where glum-looking couples are having dinner out at restaurants, sitting in awkward silence. At one time, yes, they were in love. But now, the flame has gone out. Visually speaking, our goal was to have the little details of each image tell a bigger story: couples staring off into the distance; avoiding eye contact; picking at the food on their plate; The use of harsh lighting and shadows helped reinforce the awkwardness of each moment, and the photographs stood out during a Valentine’s Day holiday that’s filled with cliched, overly sentimental imagery.

The campaign ran on Valentines Day