When Terry Bradshaw showed up with a shirt stain on what appeared to be alive TV from the Fox advertisement berth at the Super Bowl, it apparent the aboriginal time an advertiser had approved an affiliation so circuitous on so ample a stage. His discharge was, in fact, an busy pretaped achievement that teed up a bartering to be followed up backward in the bold with addition commercial. Making the aperture bit arise seamless was a long, awful complicated and generally close action for Procter & Gamble, its bureau Saatchi & Saatchi and the admiral at Traktor.
"Tide's been in the Super Bowl a few times with some appealing abundant success, and so, if we're activity to be in the game, we're activity to do article appealing epic," said Paul Bichler, controlling artistic administrator at Saatchi & Saatchi. "The stakes were absolutely aerial and we were absent up account that were never done before."
Biggest launchOne key assignment was for Tide to top itself. Its above-mentioned Tide Super Bowl ads were eyewitness favorites and accolade winners: The amusing "Talking Stain" from 2008 featured a yammering birthmark ruining a job interview, and the 2013 "Miracle Stain" summoned acolytes to adoration a birthmark that looked eerily like Joe Montana. Cast managers additionally capital to accompany an aspect of addition and abruptness to a artefact that is 70 years old and already in about bisected of the laundry apartment in the U.S. And abortion would be costly, because the accomplishment authentic the addition of Tide with Downy Pods, the brand's bigger barrage of the year.
"We saw dozens of circuit of scripts, and we are adequate not ablution a Super Bowl ad if it doesn't accommodated that aerial bar," said Amy Krehbiel, P&G accessory cast director. "We saw three circuit with lots and lots of boards that were absolute good. They aloof weren't a Super Bowl ad."
Then came the big abstraction to accept "Fox NFL Sunday" host Mr. Bradshaw get bent in the advertisement berth with a discharge on his shirt and apple-pie it with Tide. "This one rose to the top because it had article that had never been done before, with Terry arresting the average of the bold with a stain," Ms. Krehbiel said. "It was awfully funny; every time we watched it, we had bodies in the allowance beam out loud and it was all about that acumen that anybody feels—the all-overs of a stain and how, in the end, Tide was what you assurance to get it out."
A lot of eyeballsThe key was accepting the appropriate time in the bold for the bureaucracy with the spill, a bartering in which the decrepit shirt was apple-pie and a closing article backward in the game. And, of course, Mr. Bradshaw had to assurance on. P&G beneath to altercate specifics of its negotiations, but said NFL advocacy helped get admission to some alliance assets.
Relative to what would follow, those were the accessible parts. Mr. Bradshaw was game. As a media fixture, he knew the amount of a Super Bowl ad. "It's activity to accept able-bodied in balance of 100 actor [viewers] and added than apparently a billion bodies common aback it's assuredly advance out in all the countries," Mr. Bradshaw said. "And advertisers, man, that's a lot of eyeballs."
He additionally said it seemed analytic for him to be the guy with the stain. "Who bigger than Curt Menefee and Terry Bradshaw," he said, "because I'm the co-host, he's the host and I'm affectionate of, you know, the guy that affectionate of gets in lots of trouble."
But P&G could not prerelease its commercial, which is contrarily accepted operating action for best Super Bowl advertisers today, or accident any leaks whatsoever, because it would blemish the abruptness and the amusing media bonfire that admiral hoped to ignite.
'There's a screwup'The administering aggregate Traktor had addition little adversity immediately. "Since we're Swedish, we absolutely don't apperceive abundant about football," said Sam Larsson, one affiliate of the collective. He and accomplice Patrik von Krusenstjerna had to attending up who Terry Bradshaw was.
The bigger claiming was acceptable the admirers that article abnormal was happening. "To accomplish the eyewitness absolutely accept this is accident for real, at atomic bristles or 10 abnormal into the atom you accept to accept anybody absolutely stop and attending at it and think, 'There's a screwup. Fox is absolutely accomplishing some screwup,'" said Mr. Larsson.
Adding to the burden was the complete call to accomplish the alpha duplicate from the complete bold booth. "When it's a Super Bowl spot, you apperceive that anybody will not alone attending at it, they will absolutely anatomize it," said Mr. von Krusenstjerna.
Night filmingThe aboriginal part, filming Mr. Bradshaw and Jeffrey Tambor in a abode in Altadena, Calif., went smoothly. But that kicked off a seven-day chase shoot with deadlines added address down. To bottle actuality for the stain spot, P&G had to delay to see which four teams would accomplish the playoffs so that the jerseys in the attempt were correct.
Actual filming began about three weeks above-mentioned to the Super Bowl. "That's appealing late," said Mr. Bichler. "That doesn't leave us a lot of time for some of the furnishings and some of the posts we are activity to be able to do."
And there were added hurdles. Because the absolute bold is played afterwards dark, the scenes assuming Mr. Bradshaw alfresco the amphitheater gluttonous to ablution his shirt had to be filmed at night. "It's important that we can bout the lighting of the Super Bowl," said Ms. Krehbiel. And aloft all, the set had to be credible. To accomplish it so, the assembly aggregation erected an astronomic and agilely authentic replica of the Fox Sports advertisement berth on the football acreage at El Camino College in Torrance, Calif., and assuredly got accessible to blur with Mr. Bradshaw.
And again came the rain.
The set soaked, the aggregation raced to breach it bottomward and reconstruct it central a barn in the stadium. "We've had rain on shoots before, but on added shoots we had added flexibility," said Ms. Krehbiel. "We'd been able to move it to addition day. But in this one, we've got the talent, we've got the puzzle, so anybody had to get creative. We had to move central and use a blooming screen."
The attempt completed and the alteration assuredly done, the aggregation now had one job—to wait. "We achievement the internet goes crazy," said Ms. Krehbiel in an account afore the game.
And while, of course, the ambition is to advertise Tide, the plan was to absorb and amaze. "We achievement it's article that takes bodies on a adventure for a continued aeon of time," she said, "and afterwards they attending aback and say, 'How did they do that?' "
