It’s a Tide Ad: The Super Bowl Hijack That Rewired Advertising.
Tide didn’t buy a slot. It rewrote the game.
Flipping the Script
In 2018, Tide turned detergent into the biggest story of the Super Bowl. The idea was almost too obvious: every commercial features clean clothes. Which means, in a sense, every ad is a Tide ad. That twist gave the brand permission to hijack the entire broadcast, not just its own slot.
Most brands pour their budget into one spectacle. Tide instead reframed how audiences looked at every other brand. From the first spot with David Harbour asking, “Does this mean every ad is a Tide ad?” the campaign stopped being a detergent message. It became a cultural game.
Execution Without Spoofing
The genius wasn’t just the idea, but the precision of the execution. Rather than parodying familiar ad tropes, the team rebuilt them from the ground up. Automotive. Pharma. Beer. Fragrance. Each had to feel authentic enough to fool the audience for a beat before the reveal.
To achieve that realism, the agency enlisted cinematographer Hoyte van Hoytema (Dunkirk, Interstellar, Her). He brought the eye of a feature filmmaker to what looked like ordinary Super Bowl ads. Actor David Harbour deadpanned his way through them all, seamlessly slipping between genres while delivering the punchline: spotless clothes, Tide’s domain.
Partnerships gave the idea even more heft. By leveraging parent company P&G, Tide was able to borrow iconic brands like Old Spice and Mr. Clean, hijacking commercials that were already household names. Suddenly, even P&G’s other stars became Tide’s supporting cast.
Building a Game Within the Game
This wasn’t a one-off spot. It was a carefully staged takeover across all four quarters. The 45-second opener set up the conceit. Later breaks brought the Old Spice twist, a Mr. Clean cameo, and even a live broadcast integration where Harbour impersonated players from both teams.
Behind the scenes, a war room coordinated with Twitter to keep #TideAd alive in real time. Harbour and Isaiah Mustafa (the Old Spice guy himself) joined in the commentary, fueling the fire. For one night, the Super Bowl wasn’t just about touchdowns and halftime shows. It was about spotting the next Tide ad.
Impact Beyond the Broadcast
The campaign cost a reported $15 million in airtime. The return dwarfed that. #TideAd trended second only to the Super Bowl itself. Tens of thousands of tweets, weeks of media coverage, and a Valentine’s Day follow-up kept the momentum alive.
At award shows, the work took home a D&AD Black Pencil, the highest honor in advertising. But more importantly, it reprogrammed how people watched commercials. The audience was no longer passive. They were scanning every spot with suspicion, looking for clean clothes and waiting for Tide.
The Drivers of Impact
Universal truth: Clean clothes are a constant in advertising. Tide made that obvious, then owned it.
Format hack: Instead of fighting for attention, Tide claimed every ad as its own.
Audience participation: Viewers became players, turning a passive broadcast into an interactive guessing game.
Bottom Line
“It’s a Tide Ad” wasn’t detergent advertising. It was cultural mischief at Super Bowl scale. By hijacking the format and making the public complicit, Tide proved that the most effective brand work doesn’t just buy media, it rewires how people consume it.
