AdMiration feature: Tide’s “Stains Happen to the Best of Us”

For this week’s AdMiration feature, we researched Tide’s “Stains Happen to the Best of Us.” The ad is part of P&G’s new campaign to support the Olympic Games Paris 2024, which features professional athletes and Olympians, Noah Lyles and Carl Lewis.

Read on to get our 3-2-1 snapshot of the ad (3 facts, 2 learnings and 1 reflection) and learn how their ad was received based on our data.

The ad opens to a girl sitting on bleachers across from a track. She takes a bite of a jelly sandwich, and when the jelly spills down her top she says, “I bet Alison doesn’t get jelly on her shirt.” The audience then sees Alison on the track getting ready to run with a smoothie. As she shakes it, the drink splashes on her top and she huffs, “I bet Noah Lyles doesn’t get smoothie on his jersey.” 

The video cuts to Noah Lyles in a canteen with other Olympic athletes after having spilled pasta sauce on his jacket. “Oh come on, I bet Carl Lewis doesn’t get tomato sauce on his jacket,” he says before the video moves to a shot of Carl Lewis with ice cream down his top. Noah Lyles is then seen putting his jacket in the washing machine with a big bottle of Tide on the side while the message “stains happen to the best of us” appears on screen and is reinforced by a voiceover that continues with “when they do, Tide’s got you covered.” 

The ad cuts back to the cafeteria where Carl Lewis walks past Noah Lyles and asks “Pasta in Paris?” to which he jokingly replies with a shrug, “When in Rome!” 

The message “It’s got to be Tide” then appears on an orange background with the word Tide displayed as the brand logo. The ad concludes with a voiceover saying “America’s number one detergent” as a new message appears on the orange background next to an American flag and Olympic rings reading “proud partner of team USA.” 

3 facts

• The ad scores in the top 5% of all US ads in potential to drive short-term sales and in potential to drive brand equity and long-term sales. 

• Despite not featuring during most of the ad, the brand was remembered by the vast majority of viewers because it had a major role to play in the narrative. 

• The relatability of the message made the ad highly emotionally engaging and enjoyable throughout. 

2 learnings

• If your brand is only present for a portion of the ad, ensure it has a real role to play in the storyline as the “behind the scenes protagonist,” and the assets used to showcase it are distinctive enough to make it memorable. 

• Showcasing your product as accessible and beneficial to a diverse audience can drive positive associations towards your brand, which in turn make it more likely for it to be chosen at the moment of purchase. 

1 reflection

There is a common misconception that feelings of like and love in advertising are best evoked through heart-warming storylines, big gestures, intimate settings, etc. These emotions can also be elicited in more understated ways by showcasing relatable situations and conveying a level of familiarity. Understanding the way your brand can elicit emotion in a credible way is key, particularly in categories that are highly functional. 

The ad scores in the top 5% of all US ads in potential to drive short-term sales (Sales Impact: 96) and in potential to drive brand equity and long-term sales (Brand Impact: 97).

With the fast approaching Olympic & Paralympic Games Paris 2024, we’ve seen a number of brands advertising around the event — particularly those sponsoring the games or national teams. A lot of ads released so far have taken an uplifting or motivational approach, like Toyota’s “Start Your Impossible,” NatWest’s “Team GB” and Coca Cola’s “It’s Magic When the World Comes Together.” 

Tide’s ad is quite different in that it tells a very straightforward (understanding: 4.6 vs 4.3 norm) and relatable (relevance: 4.0 vs 3.6 norm) story that is first and foremost about the product, with the Olympic element as a factor that helps land the brand message as much as it taps into a cultural moment. It showcases the brand as delivering on key aspects that consumers look for in laundry care (brand meets needs: 4.5 vs 4.0 norm), clearly communicating that it “cleans effectively” (73% agreement), “is high quality” (60% agreement) and “is for everyone” (59% agreement). 

The Olympic personalities were well received, significantly outperforming the average celebrity appearance in a US ad (celebrity appeal: 4.1 vs 3.5 norm). They really amped the levels of relatability for the ad and solidified the product message that unfortunate spills and stains happen to the very best of us. 

Every person in the ad is seen contemplating the fact that their role model would never spill anything on themselves. By showcasing these role models also spilling things on their clothes, the ad successfully conveys that everyone is on the same playing field when it comes to needing effective laundry detergent. 

One respondent said: “I liked how the ad transitioned from amateur athletes to olympic legends. And how it showed that everyone, even high-performance athletes, gets stains on their clothing."  Another added: "I liked how it made it about everyone as human as we are, and they [Tide] are there when we need them most."

Despite not featuring in the first two thirds of the ad, the brand was well remembered by the audience with 87% of people correctly identifying it after watching the ad among a reel compared to a norm of 68% for the average US ad. Furthermore, 45% of viewers felt it could have only been an ad for Tide, significantly outperforming in uniqueness of brand impressions compared to the norm (uniqueness of brand impressions: 4.1 vs 3.9 norm). 

Within the last 11 seconds of the ad, the reveal of the brand and its role in the narrative made the story really come together, which helped it be memorable for viewers. Within the last few shots the brand presence was unmissable, with multiple assets being showcased to help the audience remember what brand the ad was for, such as the strength of the color orange, the product itself, the brand logo and the audible mentions of the brand name in the voiceover. 

While not opting for the uplifting or motivational approach, the ad managed to still be highly enjoyable (enjoyment: 4.1 vs 3.9 norm) and emotionally engaging (overall emotion: 64 vs 55 norm). There was a consistently strong amount of like and love reactions for the ad throughout with a number of laughter peaks (emotional intensity: 17 vs 15 norm).

The narrative captured viewers’ attention from the start as they wondered where the story might go (claimed attention: 4.2 vs 3.9) and they really appreciated the humor and lightheartedness with which it unfolded. Here’s what people had to say about it:

• "I liked that it went in an unexpected direction. Saying that normal people and sports stars all spill on themselves.”

• "I liked the humor, the progression of athletes all believing that better athletes would never have their problems."

• "I liked the humorous vibe of the advertisement while it was still able to push the overall important message at the same time."

• "It was short, sweet, to the point. It has cute humor in it and it showed some Olympic participants."

• "I like how the ad made you understand that accidents and stains happen to everyone and weaving in the olympic track stars past and present was a good spin."

Finally, the ad left consumers feeling more positively about the brand (brand appeal: 4.1 vs 3.9 norm) and made them more likely to choose it when buying laundry detergent (persuasion: 3.9 vs 3.8 norm).

Tide offers a fresh take on an Olympics & Paralympics based ad, one that’s filled with humor and relatability — and the audience loved every second of it! 

What did you think? Let us know by interacting with our coverage of the ad on LinkedIn.

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