CHEETOS | CAN'T TOUCH THIS | 2020
Turning an awkward finger into an excuse / CHEETOS "CAN'T TOUCH THIS"
A guy holds up his fingers and says "Can't touch this~" as an excuse, and MC Hammer bursts out from behind him. Wrapped up in a rolled carpet, popping up as a baby's face, climbing out of a picnic basket. It's completely absurd, but that chaos is exactly the strategy behind selling a new product during the Super Bowl.
The problem
For years, Cheetos had kept a low profile about the orange powder known as "Cheetle," even though it's the product's most defining feature. In 2020, the brand returned to the Super Bowl for the first time in ten years to launch a new product, Cheetos Popcorn. The real challenge was figuring out how to handle this powder, something that should have been seen as a downside.
The insight
The Cheetle dust on your fingers can become the perfect excuse to get out of doing something you don't want to do. Someone wants to hand you paperwork, ask you to help move a couch, or pass you a crying baby? Just show them your fingers. It's an idea that doesn't hide the flaw but flips it into a kind of "superpower." And MC Hammer's famous song fit that idea perfectly.
The idea
The main character eats Cheetos Popcorn and uses his Cheetle-covered fingers to dodge one obligation after another. Every time he says "Can't touch this," MC Hammer himself pops out of nowhere, from the edge of a rolled-up carpet, a baby's face, a picnic basket, and starts singing. In the end, he grabs the Cheetos and walks off. Goodby Silverstein & Partners tested four different animatics and chose the version that got the biggest laughs and the warmest response.
What happened
After the ad aired, the brand rolled out Cheetle-effect filters on TikTok, racking up 119 million views, more than 1.5 million reactions, and over 60,000 videos made in just one week. In 2021, it won the only Grand Prix awarded in the Creative Strategy category at Cannes Lions. The "Cheeto fingers" campaign that followed kept going, eventually winning an Effie Award in 2024.
Afterthought
Turning a flaw into a strength is never as easy as it sounds. They pulled it off on the biggest stage there is, the Super Bowl, teaming up with MC Hammer, and even walked away with the Grand Prix. I'd love to do work like this someday.
Awards
- Cannes Lions Grand Prix 2020
Featured in
- Ads Decided How We EatAds that stopped explaining taste started explaining how to drink and eat instead
