Laundry stains are part of life--no matter who you are. Tide’s “Bradshaw Stain” Super Bowl campaign was rooted in a universal consumer insight – “the bigger the stage, the bigger the stain.” Ever spilled coffee on yourself before a major presentation? Or, noticed a nice red splotch on your shirt halfway through a hot date? Yes, of course all eyes are on that stain, judging you harshly. And the longer it’s there, the bigger it feels. Now imagine this happening while you’re appearing in front of 110 million viewers. That’s what we wanted to make happen to Terry Bradshaw, a fan favorite who could take it in good humor. Media execution had a huge role to play in pulling it off. And naturally, in the end Tide solved Terry’s problem because it’s great at removing stains.

To work, both the live setup and the commercial had to look like real life. This meant filming multiple versions in advance using a disguised stadium—nobody knew yet which teams would make it into the Super Bowl, and team stadium colors had to be correct. Hopefully, viewers would experience Terry’s stain as a “real-life, real-time” blunder, believable with his everyday-guy personality. We worked with Fox’s team and off-camera, placed the stain onto Terry’s shirt during the live broadcast promoting the upcoming halftime show. Twitter lit up. Fans were burning to see if Terry’s stain would still be there during halftime. Even Tide’s competitor, Clorox, briefly tried to swipe our stain’s social media limelight. Seven minutes later, Tide’s commercial airs. In it, Terry freaks out and takes a frantic car ride to eliminate the stain. Viewers finally get it. They’ve just experienced one of the Super Bowl’s most memorable ads.

Response during Super Bowl was immediate as soon as Terry’s stain showed up. The Twitter hashtag, #BradshawStain, became a top organic trend during America’s most watched sporting event. The spot has now received 6.3 million views on YouTube, and our execution ranked #5 on USA Today’s annual Ad Meter polling. What’s gratifying though, especially for a 70-year old entrenched brand, was our social campaign on Facebook, YouTube & Twitter, which has now generated over 30 million unique viewers. That’s a lot of potential Tide + Downy Pod users. The “Bradshaw Stain” perpetuates a bright future for the detergent you can throw anything at—Tide. And Terry Bradshaw has of course recovered nicely from our orchestrated humiliation. Most important of all is that Tide + Downy PODS are the fastest new variant launch in brand history.

Could we create an illusion of reality to mesh seamlessly with live game commentary? It would require several stages. This kind of viewer involvement was unexplored media territory, though, and we needed approval from Bradshaw, Fox Network and the NFL. Fortunately, everyone said yes. The concept is that Terry is ending his live “pre-broadcast” spot plugging the upcoming half time show, when he discovers an epic barbecue stain on his shirt. We’d place Terry’s stain there while he was supposedly snacking off-camera. Everything had to remain “real” and unbranded to build viewer speculation. Co-commentator Curt Menefee points out the stain, and then their promo piece ends and we jump back into the Super Bowl game. Hopefully, the audience would share speculation—would the stain still be there at half time? If we could get fans guessing on social media, just seven minutes later, our 75-second spot would reveal the answer.

The agency’s goal in 2017 is simple as ever: Keep Tide the #1 household detergent brand in America--as it has been for 70 years. Get people involved and talking about Tide. Think up another memorable Super Bowl ad. But there’s the rub. Super Bowl ads are tremendously competitive, with a very high bar. Breaking through to generate real audience social media buzz and discussion is a challenge. We had a new laundry pod to announce, and a client who deserves and demands visibility from their ad budget. The agency had to deliver on these goals, and preferably, generate a heavy social media response, which indicates true customer engagement.