Colgate brightens image, not teeth

In this Super Bowl advertisement, Colgate opted to advocate for the importance of conserving water instead of spending 30 seconds on their own product. The video opened up with a man brushing his teeth at a sink, but quickly strayed from the typical path of a toothpaste commercial. The water continued to run from the faucet while mud caked hands cleaned off a pear, someone filled up a bowl with water, and a little girl drank water out of the tap. Colgate appealed to people’s need to nurture during this commercial by making people think about the consequences of their actions rather than blindly watch another advertisement about whiter teeth.

As soon as the commercial began, the audience knew it was a toothpaste advertisement. A man lumbered up a sink and the camera focused on a bright white toothpaste expertly placed on a generic toothbrush. However instead of the camera moving up to follow the toothbrush to the man’s mouth, it remained on the sink as three different individuals demonstrated their use of the running water. This was different from other toothpaste commercials and immediately grabbed the audience’s attention. Once the audience was hooked, Colgate had somber facts about wasting water appear on screen. Combining the elements of hard facts and appealing to the audience’s need to protect others made for a powerful commercial.

While the words and individuals in the commercial were powerful by themselves, Colgate emphasized the importance of their message by opting to not include music throughout the advertisement. Instead the only sound was the running water. This brought the issue of wasting water to the forefront of the audience’s mind by not allowing them to get distracted by a catchy or emotional song but instead only focus on the message Colgate wanted to get across.

The simplistic nature of the advertisement made it stand out, especially among the other extravagant Super Bowl ads. Colgate took advantage of their huge initial audience, around 111.9 million people watched the Super Bowl, and it made an impact as over 2 million people have watched the video online after the initial airing. By focusing on environmental and social issues instead of the actual product Colgate presented themselves in a socially conscious light to set them apart from the rest of the competition.