Tide's "Miracle Stain" Brings Home the Gold

On a rather disappointing night of Super Bowl advertising, there were a few brands that stole the show. RAM’s “Farmers,” Jeep’s “Whole Again,” and Budweiser’s “Brotherhood” certainly appealed to the emotion-driven consumers. Others like Taco Bell’s “Viva Young” and Mercedes-Benz’s “Soul” were targeted at the younger consumers. At the end of a night filled with some interesting ads, some very disappointing ads, a football blowout turned close, and a surprising stadium blackout, I think one ad stood out amongst the rest.

For me, Tide’s “Miracle Stain” was the best ad of this year’s Super Bowl.

First off, it was one of the few ads to include something about the Baltimore Ravens and San Francisco 49ers. Obviously, millions of people are watching the game just for the game. Millions are watching just for the ads. And in my case, an avid sports fan who is studying advertising, millions are watching for both the game and the ads. By incorporating the participating teams into the ad, it ensured that even those without a vested interested in the ads could pay attention and resonate with it.

Secondly, like most of the other ads, the “Miracle Stain” was not released prior to the Super Bowl. I think this made the ad more effective because it was something new and fresh for me to watch on a night where I had previously seen many of the spots. During spots I had already seen, I found myself checking social media sites to see reactions to the ads rather than actually paying attention to the ad. Tide held my attention for the full 60 seconds of the spot.

Lastly, the ad was hands down the most creative of the night. Something looking like a celebrity is a situation that everyone is familiar with. We all know the stories and hype over a potato chip that looks like Elvis or a grilled cheese that looks like the Virgin Mary. They generally get huge media coverage (like the jersey did) and people either flock to see it (like the 49er fans did) or it gets sold on eBay for tons of money. The ad used a stain of Joe Montana, one of the greatest quarterback of all time, and depicted the fan becoming famous and eventually framing the jersey in his house.

The ending is what brings down the house. The owner of the jersey comes home to find his jersey was missing. The wife/girlfriend claims she washed the jersey because it had a stain on it. As he runs away in utter shock and sadness, the woman turns to the camera to reveal she is a Ravens fan. It was the most awesome twist ever, and I think it was what made the ad so memorable.

From an advertising standpoint this ad taught me a few things:

1. I learned that the pre-releasing of an ad has no bearings on how successful it will be. Only a few of the ads leaked early received over 1 million views, far away from the roughly 110 million who watched the Super Bowl. Also this ad was shown in the fourth quarter.
2. Generally, the ads in the beginning of the game are more popular because more people are watching at that time. Maybe advertisers are realizing that the past few Super Bowls have been close games and more people are focusing their attention on the television towards the ending of the game.
3. Social media is definitely used to generate buzz about the ads. According to data from New York agencyWhispr Group, there were 52,000 tweets about the Tide spot and 86% of the talk was positive.

From a consumer standpoint, this ad taught me that Tide can take care of the most set in stains and that I should always make sure to do my own laundry.

View all of the Super Bowl ads here: http://www.buzzfeed.com/copyranter/all-52-super-bowl-ads-right-here