Posted February 05, 2018 at 08:45 AM | Updated February 05, 2018 at 08:46 AM
tide-super-bowl-commercials-david-k-harbour.jpg
YouTube/Tide
By Amy Kuperinsky | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com
No, you weren't imagining it. Tide really did buy all that ad space during the Super Bowl.
And yes, David K. Harbour, the actor from "Stranger Things," starred in every single Tide commercial that aired during the game.
The theme of all these spots: faking us out. What initially appeared to be a Budweiser ad, an Old Spice ad or a Mr. Clean ad ended up being yet another Tide ad.
Using images from other brands did seem to pay off, with Tide getting the lion's share of attention for the strategy, especially when it came to that Old Spice-themed ad.
Tide Pod distraction
So why did Tide go so heavy on the Super Bowl advertising this year?
Company executives told Adweek the idea was to mirror Tide's position atop its industry by placing a spot in each quarter of the game. But viewers who have been paying attention to headlines and the internet could easily figure out another reason for the Tide ad blowout: the Tide Pod Challenge.
The detergent brand would probably like nothing more than to distract us from this unfortunate use of its product, which, for the uninitiated, involves *eating* the Tide Pods and posting a video of yourself doing it, which, in case you didn't know, is dangerous and unwise.
If more screen time for Harbour does the job of beckoning us away from eating detergent, then why not, right?
First Tide ad: Cars, beer, car insurance, jewelry, soda and shaving cream
The first ad of the night set up the premise by putting Harbour in the driver's seat for what looked like Matthew McConaughey's Lincoln commercial. From there he's sitting at a bar for a scene that resembles a beer commercial, then he's popping out of a clamshell in a white suit. He also hawks car insurance, jewelry, soda, bedding(?) and shaving cream, a digital assistant (a la Alexa) and a muscle-builder before the minute-long spot is out. Harbour finally reveals he is in fact the pitchman for Tide.
The message: how do you know any given ad from here on out isn't a Tide ad? After all, any ad with clean clothes in it could be a Tide ad. It worked — we were listening.
Old Spice for Tide
In its second spot, Tide stuck with a winning image from Old Spice: Old Spice Man himself, Isaiah Mustafa, sitting atop a very long horse, with Harbour sitting alongside him, to sustain that singular Tide voice. The success of this follow-up ad probably had as much to do with fan-favorite Mustafa as the return of Harbour.
Budweiser and Mr. Clean for Tide
In this Tide commercial, Harbour parties with a Budweiser Clydesdale before the "sexy" version of Mr. Clean enters from last year's Super Bowl commercials, doing his little dance as a delighted woman shimmies alongside him. Harbour shows up as the deflated version of the woman's fantasy — her actual husband. Except no, he's David K. Harbour.
What Tide Pods?