Will Ferrell acts as a phone obsessed dad in non-profit campaign for a #DeviceFreeDinner

Actor Will Ferrell features in non-profit Common Sense’s latest campaign, encouraging families, kids and parents, to put down their phones and have a #DeviceFreeDinner.

Created by San Francisco advertising agency Goodby Silverstein & Partners, the film see the actor bring his signature humour to the 30-second shorts. Acting as a dad more than obsessed with his mobile phone, the four adverts play upon regular uses of mobiles, social filters, repeatedly liking, and the loss felt when you’re without your technological companion. It is also effective to see a dad featured as the phone-obsessed individual, rather than playing upon the constant narrative of young adults addicted to technology.

The adverts also use a dark humour narrative, with Cat Filter beginning with each family member saying how much they miss their father, but he’s still sitting with them, crying with laughter about a cat filter rather than engaging in conversation, showing us “what not to do at the dinner table,” says Common Sense. “And why families everywhere should try #DeviceFreeDinner for a balanced media diet.”