For the first time in more than a decade, Cheetos returned to the Super Bowl with an ad featuring MC Hammer who reminded viewers of all the things they can’t touch with the snack’s eponymous dust on their fingers.
Set to the rapper’s 30-year-old hit “U Can’t Touch This,” the 30-second ad promoted Cheetos Popcorn and shows a man getting out of all sorts of situations with an air-tight excuse: his hands are covered in Cheetos dust, or “Cheetle,” as the Frito-Lay brand now calls it. MC Hammer pops up intermittently throughout; out of a garden hose, as a newborn baby, from beneath a picnic basket.
The commercial, which aired in the game’s first quarter and marks Cheetos’ first Super Bowl appearance in 11 years, was created by Goodby, Silverstein & Partners. That agency also handled Doritos’ Big Game spot this year, which starred Lil Nas X and Sam Elliott duelling in an Old West-themed dance battle.
Super Bowl LIV was not MC Hammer’s first rodeo, either. In 2016, he appeared in an ad for 3M Command Hooks, highlighting that the product “doesn’t need hammers.”
BRAND: Cheetos
AGENCY: Goodby, Silverstein & Partners
QUARTER AIRED: Q1
SUPER BOWL: LIV
YEAR: 2020