Lonelyleap Production Company | The Redwood-O’Hare Family / 2015 [commercial advertisement]

fathers

by Douglas Messerli

 

Lonelyleap Production Company The Redwood-O’Hare Family / 2015 [2.41 minutes] [commerical advertisement]

 

Later in 2015, Tylenol created two rather straight ads, one about a Nigerian immigrant family, the Ekeh’s, whose son has been offered admission by some of the best of US universities and colleges. This was directed by Adam Hootnick.

     Another ad, The Vincent Family, of August 28, 2015, describes how a young boy’s father was killed in a car accident and then her sister died, forcing to realize at a young age that she needed to adopt their son. Again, Tylenol features a different kind of family to help sell its product.

    But perhaps the most interesting to gay viewers was The Redwood-O’Hare Family, a mixed-race gay couple who have adopted a boy.

     This couple, actor Denis O’Hare and his companion Hugo Redwood, met back in 2000 on line, and immediately felt a rapport, coming together almost immediately. They had discussions about having a family, but O’Hare argues they were on opposite sides. “When you’re a same-sex couple with a child, suddenly you become a sort of walking poster. And I wasn’t sure I wanted to do that.” He admits, having been raised in a culture where gay people were told that it wasn’t right for them to have children, the forces of those values were still affecting him, even though he wasn’t fully aware of it. So, he realizes, he had to overcome a lot of resistance.

     But the moment Declan was put into his arms, he tears up telling it, he was my son. And realized I didn’t need to seek anyone’s permission to fall in love or raise a son. “I don’t need to ask permission to have a family. I have a family.”

     They show the couple walking their son up to a curtain, which when it drops, reveals a full shelf filled with photographs of the boy, who seems quite delighted, as if even that young he knows he is now home, part of the family. “Nobody has got a lock on the definition of a family.” “We’re the Redwood-O’Hare’s, and this is how we family,” speaks a voice as Tylenol finally presents their closing logo.

 

Los Angeles, July 8, 2026

Reprinted from My Queer Cinema blog (July 2026).