As Valentine’s Day anxiety ramps up and the pressure to land the perfect gift reaches DEFCON 1, DoorDash is stepping in with a power ballad and a practical fix.
In “You Shouldn’t Have,” created by GUT Los Angeles and directed by Brandt Lewis of Good Behavior, the brand turns the universal fear of getting it wrong into a full-blown ’80s-style anthem. The message is simple: DoorDash removes the guesswork from gifting, no matter how undefined, complicated, or awkward your relationship status may be.
The film unfolds through a string of painfully relatable vignettes: a misunderstood situationship, a lovingly made but objectively terrible painting, a “gift for her” that’s clearly for him, a customization gone sideways, and the dreaded last-minute purchase that feels more insulting than romantic. Each scenario is heightened by the soaring ballad treatment, turning small misfires into operatic disasters. Watch below:
“Every year we try to speak to an underserved Valentine’s audience. This year, it was the silent majority: bad gifters. People with the best intentions, but whose gift choices don’t quite represent how much they care,” said Ariel Abramovici, CCO of GUT Los Angeles. “We leaned into the awkward, funny, and very human moments that happen when love is there, but execution isn’t. An ’80s power ballad was the perfect way to heighten the drama of these misfires and turn them into epic moments.”
This marks GUT LA’s fourth Valentine’s Day outing with DoorDash. Past installments have spotlighted singles, men who don’t receive flowers until their funerals, and even positioned DoorDash as the essential “third partner” in modern relationships. The throughline across the platform has been a sharp, culturally aware take on what love actually looks like today.
This year’s campaign digs into romantic ambiguity, social pressure, and decision fatigue around gifting, leaning into humor to connect with Gen Z. By embracing the well-meaning but chronically off-target gift giver, the work reframes DoorDash as more than a food delivery service. It reinforces the platform as a year-round retail and gifting solution.
Lewis, who joined Good Behavior last year, brings a background spanning art direction at agencies including Deutsch, Crispin Porter + Bogusky, 72andSunny, and Wieden+Kennedy, before moving into directing in 2018. His work blends big-brand sensibility with sharp craft, often pairing off-kilter humor with an underlying emotional sincerity. Here, that balance turns Valentine’s Day panic into something both cinematic and uncomfortably familiar.
CREDITS:
BRAND: DoorDash
- Kofi Amoo-Gottfried – Chief Marketing Officer
- Gina Igwe – VP, Consumer Marketing
- Jennifer Richardi – Head of Brand + Creative
- Yusong Zhang – Creative Lead
- Britta Savik – Brand Lead
- Catherine Fagan – Sr Manager, Consumer Marketing
- Jane Hong – Sr Manager, Brand Social
- Leigh Mosley – Sr Manager, Brand Strategy
- Adam Ornelas – Sr. Manager, Influencer Marketing
- Zaria Parvez – Director, Brand Social
- Dagny Morrow – Project Manager
- Isabella Salant – Sr. Associate, Creative Optimization
- Brandon Getty – Sr. Copywriter, Growth
- Ruby Lee – Lead Design
- Matt Logie – Sr. Copywriter, Growth
- Christina Li – Copy Lead, Growth
- Dorothy Guya – Paid Media & Co-Marketing Lead
- Keith Shattuck – Associate Manage, Brand Media
- Evelyn Vasarhelyi – Product Marketing Manager
- Rachel Dady – Senior Creative Lead, Copy
AGENCY: GUT LA
- Founder & Creative Chairman: Gastón Bigio
- Founder & Creative Chairman: Anselmo Ramos
- Global CEO: Andrea Díquez
- Global CSO: Fernando Ribeiro
- Global CGO: Carmen Rodríguez
- Global Head of Operations & Culture: Agustina Garavilla
- Global Chief Communications Officer: Christine Prins
- Ariel Abramovici – CCO
- Bruno Acanfora – CCO
- Sandra Alfaro – U.S. CEO
- James Hidden – Managing Director
- Julian Amarillo – Associate Creative Director
- Haroldo Moreira – Associate Creative Director
- Lucero Guevara – Art Director
- Lisa Fernandez – Copywriter
- Jane Reese – Art Director
- Renata Neumann – Head of Production, North America
- Alex Hoffman – Sr Producer
- Jenny Valladares – Sr Producer
- Teddy Notari – Group Brand Lead
- Rachel Castro – Account Director
- Carson Davis – Account Supervisor
- Natalia Davila – U.S. Chief Strategy Officer
- Manu Gabaldon – Group Strategy Director
- Luna Perez Daes – Strategy Director
- Alie Coolidge – Director of Communications, North America
- Marinet Quinones – Business Affairs Director
- Bianca Palacio- Business Affairs Coordinator
- Karla Ewell- Sr. Project Manager
PRODUCTION COMPANY: Good Behavior
- Director – Brandt Lewis
- Executive Producer- Victoria Guenier
- Head of Production- Adam Lawson
- Producer – Megan Pfaffenroth
- DP – Damian Acevedo
- Production Designer – David Duarte
- Stylist – Bridget Chapman
- Hair & Make-up – Leya Oakley
EDIT: MakeMake Editing @rockpaperscissorseditorial
- Editor: Damion Clayton
- Assistant Editor: Lucas Ferreira
- Producer: Aymi Sanchez
- Head of Production: Dani Spagnolli
- Executive Producers: Dre Krichevsky & Shada Shariatzadeh
- Managing Director: Eve Kornblum
VFX: MakeMake
- Lead Flame Artist: Kevin Stokes
- Flame Artists: Rob Ufer
- Senior Producer: Everett Wayne Cross
- Studio Manager: Jake Savage
- Head of Production: Sam Cornwell
- Executive Producers: Chris Harlow & Alex Michael
- Managing Director: Eve Kornblum
COLOR: MakeMake
- Color: MakeMake Color
- Colorist: Jonny Thorpe
- Executive Producer: Christina Roldan
- Color Producer: Alex Zhao
- Color Assists: David Oh & Matthew Stepanek
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