Super Bowl LIV 2020: Cheetos back in Big Game after 11 years with 'Can’t touch this' ad featuring MC Hammer
It’s been 11 years since the golden, crunchy snack found its way to the Big Game commercials bandwagon. The last time Cheetos showcased at the annual national sports event, was in 2009. That year, the brand ran an in-game ad featuring its mascot, Chester the Cheetah. This year, you can see them upping their creative game with their latest campaign, which is about to kick off at the Super Bowl LIV.
Over the years, Cheetos has evolved, not only in its product offerings but also as a brand. For those who dig a good brand story and are fans of advertising, here’s a little dose of Cheetos history.
The cheese-dusted, puffy cornmeal snack has been feeding America since 1948 and still counting. Over the years, the brand had managed to create nearly 25 variants (as of last year), of which 13 product varieties were discontinued (by 2015).
The new master brand campaign, titled “It’s a Cheetos thing” marks the launch of its latest product, Cheetos Popcorn.
The brand messaging plays around the concept of “Cheetle” or what you know as the orange, golden dust that gathers on your fingers after you dig into a pack of Cheetos every time.
We bet you didn’t know that, did you?
The Super Bowl commercial will be the first in the series of commercials that the campaign will run for the rest of the year. But that’s not all that this story is all about. Of course, a Super Bowl kickoff after a decade is definitely big news for any brand but it’s still just a part of our idea here.
What actually is making this year’s Cheetos Super Bowl commercial great is MC Hammer being featured in the ad.
We all know the 90s baggy pants sporting, quirky rap legend, who made us all groove in his hay days! And if you have forgotten how his music was, well, then this new Cheetos ad will definitely take you back and make you feel a little nostalgic. Why? Because Hammer’s hit song “U Can’t Touch This” is what the commercial runs with!
But wait, there’s more! Did you know that it’s been three decades since Hammer released that award-winning track? It was Hammer’s most popular song and one of the most colorful videos of the year! The song itself is going to mark its 30th anniversary as it walks with Cheetos into the Super Bowl advertising crowd.
The 30-second spot features a regular guy digging into a bag of Cheetos popcorn and getting his digits dunked in orange, cheese dust. And as he is approached by anyone to get things done, Hammer’s head pops up, singing “Can’t touch this”.
Cheetos also ran a prequel of a sort to the campaign featuring MC Hammer sitting on his piano, munching on Cheetos Popcorn, while he tries to compose a song and then says out loud “I can’t touch this”, looking at his fingers covered in cheese dust.
If you observe Cheetos’ advertising/marketing history, the brand has always tried to establish itself as a pop culture icon. So is its latest campaign. Roping in an erstwhile rap icon like MC Hammer, at a time when 90s pop culture is making its way back into millennial lives, is nothing less than perfect timing to appeal to the younger audience of today.
And with a Superbowl kickoff, brand message will only get to have a much larger eyeball and bigger audience.
The spot released a couple of days ago already has more than a million views on YouTube and is sticking to the viewers, quite like Cheetos dust itself!
While you wait for the Big Game night to show you more, here’s a clip of the latest Cheetos Popcorn:
‘Super Bowl LIV’ kicks off on February 2, 2020 - 6:30pm ET / 3:30pm PT at the Hard Rock Stadium, Miami, Florida.
