Ok, ok, Congrats, Philly fans. Your team played one HELL of a Super Bowl after everyone wrote you off when Carson Wentz tore his ACL and went down for the season. You had to rely on a second-year head coach and a backup, journeyman quarterback, Nick Foles to get you into the playoffs and help fulfill your wildest dreams.

And you know what? He did just that. Nick Foles showed up big when it most mattered and brought home the Super Bowl championship home to Philadelphia for the first time ever. Much to the shegrin of my hometown team, the Pats….but I digress. 

What. A. Game.

Truth be told, as a fan of the game, you couldn’t have asked for a better Super Bowl. I thought the Patriots had the Eagles with 2:21 left to go in the 4th quarter and the ball in Tom Brady’s hands, but a strip sack turnover helped run the clock down and sealed the deal to bring the Lombardi Trophy to Philadelphia for the very first time. It was truly one hell of a shootout, so let me be one of the first to congratulate you on a seemingly impossible season that became very, very real. Job well done, Philly. 

I remember when the Patriots won the Super Bowl for the first time and it was magical. After that field goal by Adam Vinatieri, I ran out onto the street screaming at the top of my lungs, high fiving strangers and hugging randos as we all embraced, bonded by something truly special. A region’s first Super Bowl win.

I’ll never forget that and it brings chills to my spine when I think back about that moment, so, again, congratulations to you, Philadelphia, just don’t burn the city down before that parade kicks off. Take that from a 5-time veteran of duck boat parades, ok? 

Anyway, as huge Pats fans here at Inphantry, I can tell you firsthand, the City of Boston doesn’t really don’t start paying attention until the playoffs kick off, and this year wasn’t much different. Even with a banged-up roster, and two of our favorite Patriots out for the season (Dont’a Hightower and Julian Edelman) we still felt really comfortable sliding into the playoffs as the number one seed.

The Super Bowl was all but ours. We were sure of it. Our shortsighted arrogance guaranteed it.

And with the Titans, Jaguars and Philadelphia on deck throughout the playoffs, it felt like a surefire thing to expect Roger Goodell to hand Tom Brady the Vince Lombardi trophy for the second year in a row. And with the two weeks leading up to the Super Bowl, the mood in Boston was very much, ‘at ease,’ with our prospects of having another duck boat parade to schedule in February.

All the stars seemed to align once again for the Brady & Belichick Show to roll. And all we had to do was fire up the grill and crack a few cold ones and sit back to enjoy the laser show that was about to begin.

But here we are. February 5th, 2018, and the bitter taste of defeat on the world’s biggest stage lingers, coupled with the compliments of a slight hangover. Both of which have left me grumbling more than usual on a Monday morning, but life moves on. The show must go on.

It’s not the end of the world. Right…..? 

*crickets*

Anyway, let’s come to terms with it by writing about it. Maybe….the fact is, The Philadelphia Eagles won their very first Super Bowl since the team first was created in 1933 over the New England Patriots by a score of 41-33 at U.S. Bank Stadium in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The game was really won on several gutsy calls by head coach, Doug Pederson, and executed brilliantly by Nick Foles, who really played the game of his life.

And the crazy part is, both Doug Pederson and Nick Foles have historically been backup quarterbacks (Pederson for Dan Marino and Brett Favre) and Foles for Carson Wentz, Alex Smith, Jared Goff, and Case Keenum. And Foles himself was once on the brink of retirement just two years ago but was convinced by his wife to keep playing (sounds like an awesome wife). 

Long story short, the stars aligned perfectly for Foles, Pederson and the Eagles to come away with a historic win on an incredibly gutsy Super Bowl performance. Truly, even as a fan of the Pats, there is no doubt that Philly outplayed them with heart, soul, and a brilliantly executed game plan on the world’s biggest stage.  

And that’s the bitter pill that must be swallowed by every New England fan here this morning. Yes, for once, our New England Patriots are not the World Champions. Sad as it may be. 

Last night was a great game, truly, but there was something that even if the Pat’s had won, I would have admitted was better than the game. And that, my friends, were the amazingly funny commercials by Tide.

Yes. Tide. The brand you probably wash your clothes with. Or at least, should, starting right now. And here’s why.

Tide, the detergent brand came out with a series of the most intelligent commercials I’ve ever seen (courtesy of Saatchi & Saatchi) with a spokesperson in David Harbour, (you might recognize him as, “Detective Jim Hopper” from Stranger things) declaring that every ad has a super clean shirt, thus declaring every ad, ‘a Tide ad.’

Watch their first spot here. 

Genius. Absolutely Genius.

The moment I saw it, I was enamored, immediately clamoring for more. Tide knew they only had a few multi-million dollar spots in-between the quarters, and they hit it out of the park every time. Not only with the variety of content in their spots, but by pinpointing the cliches of all the other Super Bowl ads, from Matthew McConaughey’s Lincoln ads, to the cheesy beer commercials, to chiding Amazon, cell phone companies, and more, they created a game in which no one else could play by their rules. 

From the moment the first commercial aired during one of the breaks in the first quarter, it was clear that no other commercial would escape the box that Tide had immediately (and subtly) put them in. Quickly (for me) every commercial became useless, as I often found myself wondering if the commercial I was watching would end up being a Tide ad. I hoped most of them would be, but most weren’t, and only when another Tide ad did show, I always found myself pining for more. 

 

They knew every other ad has clean clothes, pristine imagery, and is usually focused as being a prototypical car ad, hilarious beer commercial, a ‘whatever ad this is’ spot, and then immediately changed the scope of every commercial declaring all other ads ‘Tide Ads’ due to their dedication to having clean clothes.

Genius.

Just take a look at some of the dialogue in the commercials:

“What makes it a Tide Ad?”

David Harbour: “There are no stains. Look at those clean clothes. What else would this be an ad for?”

“So, does this make every Super Bowl ad, a Tide ad? I think it does. Watch and see.”

It couldn’t have scripted any better. Even the other ads fell beautifully into their trap. The ads that weren’t Tide ads, still felt like Tide ads, and the Tide Ads which I was positive weren’t Tide Ads, were Tide Ads! 

And the best ad of all: This Mr. Clean rip-off that turned out to be a Tide Ad.

It was an incredible symphony of cat and mouse (from a brand perspective) outside of the actual game itself and as a marketer, I was completely enthralled.

“Sara, SARA! It’s a Tide Ad”

Long story short, I thought Tide took advertising to a whole new level. Just like Nick Foles and Doug Pederson in that game, but I don’t think I’ve ever laughed out loud during the Super Bowl like that. Tide’s ads were inventive, light, and funny in a way that all made us feel a little bit better about everything else that’s happening in the world. It was down to earth, realistic, and funny content that was appropriately consumed given the Football game it debuted on.

Anyways, their internal creative team and associated ad agencies definitely deserve a raise. Great job, Tide. You won the Super Bowl in my mind, for real. But, don’t worry Pats fans. You know we’ll be back with a vengeance next year. 

~ Cam King

Don’t forget to follow @inphantry on Twitter and reach out to us personally for more info on our capabilities at: cam@inphantry.com.