How Tide helped adland find its sense of humour

Saatchi & Saatchi’s It’s A Tide Ad used some impressively self-aware satire to prove advertising can still raise a laugh. Here, directors Traktor discuss how to hijack the Super Bowl, and why comedy should be taken seriously

Tide’s 2018 Super Bowl ad is proof that even the advertising industry can poke fun at itself, and that everyone will find that funny. Appearing in every single commercial break of the game, the brand hid behind a series of immediately recognisable advertising tropes, before exposing each one as a secret Tide commercial.

The campaign – created by Saatchi & Saatchi and directed by Traktor – plays on people’s love/hate relationship with advertising, as well as the familiar predictability of everything from epic car commercials to excessive perfume ads.