Pantene’s adorable new advertisement campaign has three NFL players facing their toughest opponent yet: their daughters’ hair.
Catching a touchdown pass in front of thousands or running through a defensive line seems like nothing for the players as they have to face braids, buns and pigtails.
But Jason Witten, Benjamin Watson and DeAngelo Williams take it in stride, tackling barrettes and bows as part of Pantene’s ‘Strong is Beautiful’ campaign.
The series is meant to highlight the important of a father and daughter’s one-on-one time and Watson, a tight end for the New Orleans Saints, found it to be a great way to spend time with daughter Grace.
‘If you’re a father and only have so many hours in the day, maybe doing their air is one of the things you can do to connect with them and build that relationship,’ he says.
Watson sails through as as he gives braided pigtails, only slipping up when one of the brain comes updone.
‘Sometimes a dad-do is a re-do, and you got to be okay with that,’ he says before bringing daughter Naomi as ‘referee’ to judge his handiwork.
Grace laughs with glee as her dad hands her a mirror to see the final look, embellished with a red and green bow, as she dubs it the ‘Who-Dad’ do and proclaims ‘I love it’.
Witten, a tight end for the Dallas Cowboys, experienced a couple more penalties as he tried to give three-year-old daughter Landry a ballerina bun.
‘I can wash it for sure, but never styled it, he says. ‘I think mom’s got the touch, I need to learn some time.’
Witten soon realizes that the hands that help him catch footballs are not as helpful when it comes to the perfect bun.
‘I’m not nervous but, ugh, my hands get a little bit in the way,’ he says as he tries to tie all of Landry’s blonde locks together.
Meanwhile descriptions of each hair style are written like ‘game plays’ to help the dad’s strategize, using football lingo such as ‘twist hair in tight huddle and tie’ and ‘alternate formations into a tight braid’.
Witten switches to trying a braid after he receives an ‘illegal formation’ in the ballerina bun, but soon realizes ‘catching a touchdown pass is a lot easier than making a beautiful braid’.
So Witten changes strategy and goes for simple pigtails, even asking Landry if she wants blue and white ties to represent the Dallas Cowboys.
‘I want purple!’ she shouts with glee.
After Witten finally succeeds, even adding some special star barrettes for a little extra flash, Landry happily throws up her hands and yells, ‘Touchdown!’ before he gives her a sweet kiss on the nose.
Williams, a running back for the Pittsburgh Steelers, admits he only knows how to do pigtails, but he takes on both the ‘princess puff’ and ‘twisted pigtails’ with daughters Rhiya and Reyna.
He’s able to distract Reyna, his youngest, with blocks as she sits on the salon chair, asking her to tell him the colors and talking about snow before leading her in a ‘Here we go Steelers’ chant.
When he completes her princess puff he lovingly calls her ‘my little samurai’ before throwing a tiara on top and telling her, ‘Look, you got a dad-do!’
Rhiya’s twisted pigtails are a more complicated affair, and both dad and daughter at first look terrified as he sprays detangler into her curls to prepare.
‘Definitely stepping out of my comfort zone,’ he says to the camera. ‘You know what’s easier for me? Running through a defensive line, cause I have help running through the defensive line.’
But Rhiya is there for support, telling him ‘you’re doing a good job, daddy,’ as Williams twists her hair before facing a new obstacle.
‘I don’t know why they make these barrettes so complicated for guys,’ he says. ‘They should come with a warning label.’
But Williams is able to master both the barrettes and a switch in the game plan when his daughter asks for flowers to be put inside each braid.
After each commercial reads the phrase, ‘Girls who spend quality time with their dads grow up to be stronger women’.
‘Research shows that quality time spent with dads is key in raising daughters who are more self-confident, self-reliant and more successful in school and their careers’, Pantene said in a press-release.
‘We hope our new series of how-to videos shows dads how easy and fun it can be to spend quality time with their daughters by doing their hair.’