Kiwi expat Kirsten Rutherford leads the team behind DoorDash’s new ‘Order, Delivered’ campaign for parents
Kiwi expat Kirsten Rutherford, who joined DoorDash in the US as Lead Creative earlier this year after 11 years at TBWAChiatDay LA, has led the latest expansion of the delivery platform’s evergreen brand campaign, this time turning the lens on parents.
“Order, Delivered” takes the familiar DoorDash drop-off photo and uses it as a window into the real stories playing out behind each order. The platform reframes everyday deliveries as glimpses into how people are living today, and the part DoorDash can play in making life a little easier.
The new work leans into the chaos, tradeoffs and mental load that come with keeping a household running, with DoorDash’s research finding that for parents, convenience isn’t a luxury — it’s seen as a lifeline that buys back time.
Each film opens on a real DoorDash drop-off photo, frozen in time, before the camera pushes through the door in one continuous move to reveal the delightfully chaotic true story behind it, before resolving on the DoorDash notification and photo within a phone. Shot entirely hand-held and drawing on an “accidental renaissance” aesthetic, every film is tagged “Based on a DoorDash order far, far too real.”
The four films: “Blowout Sale,” where new parents’ hotel getaway is derailed by a catastrophic diaper blowout, resolved by an emergency DoorDash run for wipes and a clean change; “F*** It,” where a new mum deep in the postpartum haze orders nipple cream, pads, a robot vacuum and ice cream in the same haul; “The Big Sick Baby,” where a 1am fever has both baby and dad in rough shape, and DoorDash delivers relief for babies of all sizes; and “Revenge Baking,” where a rival mum’s picture-perfect bake sale cookies spark a midnight DoorDash-fuelled comeback.
Says Jennifer Richardi, Head of Brand & Creative at DoorDash: “The most powerful stories about DoorDash aren’t ones we need to invent, they’re already happening every day. ‘Order, Delivered’ gives us a way to turn those everyday moments into something bigger, and to show the meaningful role DoorDash can play in people’s lives.”
The campaign was directed by Sam Brown, represented by Imperial Woodpecker, who began his career in music video before moving into commercial work for brands including Apple, Meta, Coca-Cola and Adidas. Pulling off each film’s signature unbroken camera move, gliding through a frozen home from the front door to its most chaotic corner and back, required an unusual amount of pre-visualisation. Brown’s team built hand-crafted paper dioramas of each set (nicknamed “Papermatic”) to choreograph the single continuous camera path before a frame was shot, while identical twins were cast to play different beats of the same character within a single unbroken take.
Rutherford’s career began in New Zealand at FCB, where her work on a campaign to reduce stigma around mental illness earned United Nations recognition. She went on to work in London, then at Wieden+Kennedy, 72&Sunny and TBWAChiatDay LA, leading creative for brands including Southwest Airlines, Expedia, Discover, Sephora and Instacart, before joining DoorDash earlier this year.
Check out the behind the scenes film below:
DoorDash
Jennifer Richardi – Director, Brand & Creative
Kirsten Rutherford – Executive Creative Director
Alejandro Juli – Senior Lead, Creative Director
Yusong Zhang – Senior Lead, Creative Director
Sarah Saltonstall-Wrum – Senior Art Director
Mackenzie Thomas – Copywriter
Britta Savik – Senior Manager, Consumer Business Lead
Jeremy Lewis – Integrated Production Lead
Kofi Amoo-Gottfried – Chief Marketing Officer
Gina Igwe – VP, Consumer Marketing
Val Noonan – Senior Manager, Cx
Francesca Ravella – Senior Manager, Co-Marketing, New Verticals
Production Company: Imperial Woodpecker
Director: Sam Brown
EP: Doug Halbert
Producer: Polly Ruskin
Production Supervisor: Francesca Resteghini
DOP: Ben Fordesman
Production Designer: Herman Lampen
Wardrobe: Richard De Jager
Hair & Makeup: Merle Titus
Service Company: Farm Films
EP: Skip Margetts
Producer: Minett Williams
Editorial: Exile
Managing Director / EP: CL Kumpata
EP: Jenn Locke
Associate EP: Adam Parker
HOP: Taylor Rousseau Samuel
Editor: Grant Surmi
AE: Jonathan Rogers
Post: Pariah
VFX Supervisor: Pat Murphy
Flame: Matt Sousa
Flame: Baran Bayburt
Flame: Drew Downes
Flame: Ruben Llusia
CG Supervisor: Mike Wynd
CG Artists: Ed Boldero, Mitchell Jaeger, Jun Kim, Elizabeth Hammer, Dony Permedi
Producer: Armando Plata
Head of Production: Persis Reynolds
Executive Producer: Michael Steinmann
Managing Director: Mark Tobin
Audio: Pickle Music
CCO: Alexis Estiz
ECD/ Managing Partner: James Zavaleta
Producer: Matt Kerr
Producer: Vanessa Lozano
Recording Engineer: John Pappas
Mixer: Dan Walsh + Godi Gaviria
Composer: Bryan Velasco + Edoardo Tancredi
Colour: King of Birds
Lead Colorist, Aubrey Woodiwiss
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