During the Super Bowl, over 103 million Americans expect to be entertained by the best advertising. We found something all ads have in common, something that we could point out while staying true to our brand: clean clothes. If the characters in an ad are wearing clean clothes, doesn’t that make it a Tide ad? With this premise, we turned every ad into a Tide ad, without once showing a single stain - something Tide hasn’t done in its 70-year history. The program kicked off with a :45 in the first quarter with David Harbour, a rising actor famous for his role in “Stranger Things,” setting up the idea. Harbour appeared six more times in stereotypical Super Bowl ads as well as iconic spots like Old Spice’s “The Man Your Man Can Smell Like,” and even as part of the broadcast.

The full campaign ran once during the Super Bowl on NBC with over 103 million viewers. Our :45 ran in the first quarter, with Harbour introducing the idea – whenever you see clean clothes, it’s a Tide ad. Harbour appeared six more times in stereotypical Super Bowl ads as well as iconic spots like Old Spice’s “The Man Your Man Can Smell Like,” and even as part of the broadcast. Throughout the program, Tide also leveraged online video, social media and influencers to keep viewers engaged with #TideAd.

#TideAd was used over 45,000 times, with people creating their own #TideAd content, generating thousands of Tide Ad memes, and even won Twitter’s #BrandBowl. After the game, our program was picked up by 680+ publications, garnering over 3.6 billions impressions. The program helped launch Tide’s new line extension, Tide Ultra Oxi, which experienced 35% sales growth, post game.

Tide hijacked the 2018 Super Bowl by turning every ad into a Tide ad. The program kicked off with a :45 in the first quarter with actor David Harbour setting up the idea that whenever you see clean clothes, it’s a #TideAd. He then reappeared six more times to reinforce the idea. People embraced the hashtag and responded in real-time. Within minutes of the first spot airing, #TideAd began trending and was used over 45,000 times, with people even generating their own #TideAd content, building a strong relationship with the Super Bowl audience.

During the Super Bowl, millions of viewers go online to comment on and scrutinize every ad of the broadcast. To own the social conversation, we found something all ads have in common, and gave people a filter through which they could judge every ad they saw: the presence of clean clothes. With the unexpected appearance of David Harbour hijacking different commercials, we kept the Internet guessing in each commercial break. People talked and laughed about laundry, questioning many of the commercial as to whether they were #TideAds. #TideAd was used over 45,000 times, with people creating their own #TideAd content, generating thousands of Tide Ad memes, and even won Twitter’s #BrandBowl.

Tide challenged us to become “the most loved brand of the Super Bowl” and surpass the highly-successful “Bradshaw Stain” from last year. Keeping that in mind, and knowing we had to go big to earn the love of the over 103 million watching the game, we decided to take over the Super Bowl and turn every ad into a Tide ad. We knew the best way to get people talking about detergent and laughing was to get them to rethink the other 53 ads, and hopefully every other ad to come.