A Cetaphil Super Bowl commercial shared a message that resonated with many: "This season, dads and daughters found a new way to connect." A lot of people were touched by the ad, called #GameTimeGlow, which depicts the relationship between a daughter and her dad.
The commercial shows the dad struggling to connect with his daughter until they finally watch football together in the end because his daughter is a Swiftie. Though it was generally perceived as heartwarming, the ad was also controversial because a TikTok creator accused Cetaphil of stealing the idea from her.
The TikTok creator, Sharon Mbabazi, created videos in September 2023 that showed her stepdad taking an interest in her skin care routine, much like in the Cetaphil ad, and sharing Taylor Swift-related football news with her.
In a recent video shared on TikTok, Sharon accused Cetaphil of "copying [her] TikToks." In the video, she admitted that at first, she thought it could've been a coincidence, but then she noticed too many similarities between her content and the Super Bowl commercial.
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Sharon noticed multiple similarities that made her believe Cetaphil "could have at least given us some credit."
"It's the fact that they have a mixed race girl in the video and a white dad," she pointed out in the video. "I'm a black girl and my stepdad is white."
This was not the only similarity though. The setting for the videos also looked pretty similar.
"In the video, she's doing her makeup, her skin care, on her vanity, and her white dad walks in. I was doing my makeup on my vanity and my white dad walks in and tells me about football," Sharon pointed out.
She explained in her video that the moment she realized it wasn't a coincidence, though, was when "the dad walked into her room and put skin care under his eyes."
In Sharon's videos, her stepdad put eye patches under his eyes when he walked into her room.
"Like literally bar for bar, it's the same concept," Sharon said.
In another video, Sharon and her stepdad responded to the Cetaphil ad again. In the video, Sharon and her stepdad are both wearing eye patches under their eyes and her stepdad is holding up his phone, which clearly has the Cetaphil ad on it. They used audio from Euphoria that said “Is this f—ing play about us?” over the video.
In another video, Sharon and her stepdad responded to a comment in which someone asked Sharon to share her stepdad's reaction to the commercial.
"Here's the deal, Cetaphil," her stepdad said in the video. "That's a beautiful story that you have … but it's our story. Beautiful content. My daughter made the content that you stole."
Later, Sharon posted another update, saying that Cetaphil had reached out to her. "They've acknowledged all the videos and all the content," Sharon said. "And they've made things right with us."
Her stepdad added that Cetaphil "spent a lot of time working with us. And ultimately, they will represent Sharon and her brand well."
Cetaphil shared a statement with Today.com, saying that the company was "inspired by a unique trend this year."
"After speaking with Sharon, we see how she contributed to this trend personally," the company said in the statement shared with Today.com. "This campaign was a response to that trend, and we are therefore not surprised the campaign connects with so many."
Sharon and her stepdad recently shared a new video in partnership with Cetaphil.
"Yesterday’s pregame chat with my stepdad he loves barging into my room. #CetaphilPartner #GameTimeGlow #CetaphilFamily #ad," Sharon captioned the video, which shows Sharon and her stepdad comparing different Cetaphil products to football.
