Skincare brand Cetaphil has come under fire for its Taylor Swift-inspired Super Bowl ad, which allegedly bares an “uncanny” resemblance to the works of TikTok creator Sharon Mbabazi.
The ad, released on Friday, was well received, however, it gained criticism after a TikTok creator claimed the skincare brand stole the concept from her profile and didn’t give her credit.
Titled ‘A New Sports Tradition for Dads & Daughters’ the video advert shows a daughter and step-daughter able to connect through their respective loves of the Super Bowl and Taylor Swift.
At the beginning of the advert, the daughter is uninterested in the Super Bowl, despite her stepdad’s efforts to get her to watch it with him. She stays in her room applying Cetaphil at a vanity desk.
This shifts when the commentator announces that Taylor Swift is watching the game. Swift has become an NFL regular since dating her boyfriend Kansas City Chiefs Travis Kelce.
The heartwarming ad ends with the duo sat watching the Super Bowl together. Both are wearing football jerseys and friendship bracelets – which have been popular during the Eras Tour.
TikTok user Sharon Mbabazi who has nearly 20,000 followers and more than a million likes called out Cetaphil on her page this weekend.
In a number of her videos, which she has now pinned to her profile, she is sitting at a vanity desk applying skincare products when her stepdad enters the room to update her Swift and Travis. Watch the video below and decide for yourself.
@sharavinaaa I’ve turned him into a swiftie #taylorswift #traviskelce #kansiscitycheifs #swifties #swifttok #fyp #taylorandtravis ♬ original sound – Sharon Mbabazi
In a stitch she said “Y’all Cetaphil legit copied the TikToks I made with my stepdad back in September, like y’all could have given us some credit, what’s up?”
“It’s the fact they have a mixed race girl in the video and a white dad. I’m a black girl, my stepdad is white and in the video she’s doing her makeup her skincare on her vanity and her white dad walks in. I was doing my makeup on my vanity and my white dad walks in and talks about football”.
“For a second I thought maybe its a coincidence until the dad walks in and puts skincare under his eyes like what my stepdad did in our video”.
It is not clear if Cetaphil took the concept from Mbabazi, however some have criticised them for doing so.
“Really disappointing to see that Cetaphil have ‘heavily borrowed’ a Black woman’s TikTok content as the concept for their Super Bowl spot without crediting or acknowledging her; publicly patting themselves on the back for their originality and cultural ‘finger on the pulse’, when in reality it’s anything but,” Zoe Scaman, founder and keynote speaker at Bodacious said on LinkedIn.
What do you think?
