P&G Tide: It's A Thursday Night Tide Ad
P&G Tide wanted to sustain the momentum of their viral Super Bowl campaign throughout the 2018 NFL season. Working with Saatchi & Saatchi New York, they needed to find a way to dominate the conversation during Thursday Night Football without relying on traditional, easily ignored commercials, targeting sports fans who usually tune out laundry advertising.
Creative Idea
Disguised ads as live game segments to claim every clean jersey was a Tide ad.
Tide hijacked the NFL's Thursday Night Football broadcast by disguising commercials as live game segments and commentary. By claiming every clean jersey on the field was a Tide ad, they turned the entire game into a season-long product demonstration.
Turning Every Clean Jersey Into A Media Buy
The Real Time War Room
To maintain the illusion of a live hijack, Saatchi & Saatchi New York operated a dedicated "war room" during every Thursday Night Football broadcast. This team monitored the game and other commercials in real - time, deploying "snackable" 15 - second spots that functioned as meta - commentary on the surrounding content. By partnering with brands like Old Spice and the Bud Knight from Bud Light, Tide effectively "hacked" the media spend of other advertisers. Creative Director Daniel Lobaton noted that the strategy shifted from buying 60 - second slots to simply becoming the commentary on everyone else’s ads.
Authenticity Through Equipment Managers
The campaign’s claim that the game itself was a Tide ad was not just a metaphorical stunt. Tide secured a unique deal with NFL equipment managers to ensure that the players' jerseys were actually washed with Tide. This made the "Clean Jersey" narrative literally true, allowing the brand to claim ownership of every frame of the broadcast featuring a player. This level of integration turned the entire NFL season into a sustained product demonstration for Tide’s premium innovations.
Sustaining the Super Bowl High
While the original Super Bowl spots featured David Harbour, the Thursday Night iteration expanded the roster to include NFL legend Peyton Manning. The strategy worked - the campaign generated over 650 million earned impressions and was named one of Twitter’s "Best of 2018" entries. Beyond social buzz, the effort drove significant organic sales growth for P&G, proving that the "Tide Ad" concept was a repeatable platform rather than a one - off viral moment. It successfully trained viewers to look at the world through "Tide goggles," searching for clean clothes in every piece of media they consumed.
Creative Strategy Deconstructed
Company
A dominant laundry brand with an established 'clean equals Tide' logic from previous viral Super Bowl success.
Category
Laundry brands typically buy standard 30 - second spots that viewers ignore or skip during high - stakes sports broadcasts.
Customer
Football fans want to stay immersed in the game and usually tune out during traditional commercial breaks.
Culture
The 2018 NFL season provided a massive, recurring live audience where real - time 'media hacking' could sustain long - term engagement.
Company
A dominant laundry brand with an established 'clean equals Tide' logic from previous viral Super Bowl success.
Category
Laundry brands typically buy standard 30 - second spots that viewers ignore or skip during high - stakes sports broadcasts.
Strategy:
Condition the audience to perceive every instance of a category's core benefit as a brand - owned asset.
Customer
Football fans want to stay immersed in the game and usually tune out during traditional commercial breaks.
Culture
The 2018 NFL season provided a massive, recurring live audience where real - time 'media hacking' could sustain long - term engagement.
Strategy:
Condition the audience to perceive every instance of a category's core benefit as a brand - owned asset.
Results
The campaign achieved massive success, generating 274 million impressions through its broadcast integration. The #TideAd hashtag saw an explosive +1389% increase in usage, with 1 in 5 tweets about Thursday Night Football featuring the hashtag. It also became the most shared campaign in Tide’s social media history, effectively turning the entire NFL season into a series of Tide ads.
274M
broadcast impressions
+1389%
increase in #TideAd usage
1 in 5
tweets about TNF featured #TideAd
Strategy Technique
Create a New Mental Shortcut
The campaign trained viewers to associate the sight of any clean clothing with the brand, effectively turning every frame of the broadcast into a subconscious reminder of Tide's cleaning power.
Explore Technique
Creative Technique
Hijack the Medium
Tide infiltrated the live broadcast by mimicking the visual language of sports commentary and referee calls, blurring the line between the game and the advertisement to capture undivided viewer attention.
Explore Technique
Craft Breakdown
This campaign's brilliance lies in its seamless integration into live sports culture, using media planning and copywriting to turn every frame of a game into a potential brand message.
The strategic placement of ads within the live broadcast flow, rather than traditional breaks, is a revolutionary use of media.
The scripts for the commentators and referees perfectly mimic authentic football jargon while delivering the brand message.
The professional commentators and athletes deliver their lines with perfect 'broadcast' sincerity, making the gag work.
The visual integration of Tide branding into the broadcast graphics and telestrator segments is flawlessly executed.
The synergy between media planning and copywriting is what makes the 'everything is a Tide ad' concept actually believable and effective.
