A metro Atlanta family, comprised of two gay black dads and their kids, are the new face of a Nikon commercial.
Kordale and Kaleb Lewis and their three biological children live in Fairburn, Georgia. Last year, a photo of the two fathers doing their daughters' hair on Instagram went viral. Kordale and Kaleb say they were surprised how a photo of their normal morning routine could garner such attention.
“In the picture we captioned (that) this is us every day getting up at 5:30 in the morning and getting ready for school. And it was a simple innocent picture,” the couple said. “Next thing you know, it went viral and I’m still amazed today, ‘Why did this picture go viral?’”
The dads received all sorts of feedback to the photo, both positive and negative. They say they didn’t really have a reaction to the negative messages they received.
“I know they don’t know what we go through. I know that they don’t know our children. I know they don’t know our lifestyle. They don’t know how we live,” the couple said.
Kordale and Kaleb, who are very involved in Atlanta’s LGBTQ community, used the new-found attention to bring awareness to the reality that families come in many different forms.
Nearly a year after the original photo was posted on social media, Nikon chose the Lewis family to be a part of its "I Am Generation Image" campaign.
The family is featured in a two-minute ad completing their normal morning routine.
“We just want people to know that, ‘Hey, we’re normal,’ and you can’t judge people on their normal. You really can’t,” Kaleb and Kordale say as the commercial begins.
The commercial takes you through a normal morning at the Lewis home with their two daughters, ages 8 and 7, and their 6-year-old son.
“Parents that can get up at 5:30 and do their daughters’ hair no matter who they are, that’s a family,” the couple says in the commercial.
The company gave the family a Nikon camera to capture their everyday lives through their eyes. The gallery of their life in photos is featured on the Nikon I am Generation Image website. The same camera went on a journey with seven other people as a part of the campaign.
The commercial is already getting thousands of likes on their Instagram and Facebook accounts. It has also been retweeted hundreds of times from the Nikon USA account.
