Though Super Bowl 2017 is already a week gone, there are still some interesting ideas that can be taken away from its ads. One that was particularly interesting was the Tide campaign, which featured a "live" ad that included sportscasters Curt Menefee and Terry Bradshaw, and also actor Jeffrey Tambor.
In the beginning of the game, Tide's ad was disguised into the actual broadcast. As Menefee and Bradshaw discussed the game, a rather unflattering stain could be spotted on Bradshaw's shirt. Many people, including myself, thought the stain was a mistake in the broadcast. However, once Tide's commercial hit the air, the truth was revealed. In the commercial, Bradshaw noticed the stain on his shirt was trending, so he started taking drastic measures to get it fixed. This included taking a motorized cart down a highway and eventually crashing into Jeffrey Tambor's house. Tambor hilariously watches a show about animals after putting Bradshaw's shirt in the wash. Once the commercial was over and the stain was fixed, the stain could no longer be seen on Bradshaw's shirt during the live Super Bowl broadcast.
Speaking from a business perspective, this is a rather ingenious method of advertising: get the people concerned about an issue in the program their watching, only to realize it's a method of advertising. This almost insures that viewers will not ignore the advertisement, since they are actually interested in the details of the program they are tuning in for.
However, looking forward with this method of advertising, there could be some ethical issues. People tune into programs for good content. They trust that they are getting the best possible product from the producers. They do not want advertisers to get involved in the particulars of the script. And okay, you might say that this has been going on for years in the form of product placement. This can be witnessed in classic movies like E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, with the Reese's Pieces product. Although, product placement is one thing, and this issue with Tide and Bradshaw is another. People were genuinely concerned about the stain on Bradshaw's shirt. They thought it was a legitimate part of the program; no one could have possibly known it was a piece of advertisement until the commercial hit. Once advertising starts interfering with the content of trusted programs, we have the right to be concerned as consumers. What if program "themes" start teaching lessons about brand, instead of the real lessons of human life? What if that episode of Spongebob you show your kids teaches them to always buy Burger King instead of McDonald's, etc.? Clearly this issue of interfering with content is something that should be monitored in the future.
This was easily the most interesting advertisement of the entire Super Bowl. I thought it was executed very well, but like you said, I think there could be some serious ethical implications that would need to be thought through so that consumers don't feel like they're being duped when they watch something.
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