The 'It's a Tide Ad' meme originated from a series of self-referential commercials during Super Bowl LII in 2018, starring Stranger Things actor David Harbour. The campaign worked by parodying various well-known advertising tropes—such as luxury car ads, beer commercials, and insurance spots—only to reveal that because the clothes in the scene were perfectly clean, it was actually a Tide commercial. The internet quickly adopted the concept, using it to subvert expectations in videos and images where any situation, no matter how unrelated, is revealed to be a secret advertisement for laundry detergent. It is celebrated for its clever meta-humor and its ability to turn any piece of media into a potential 'Tide ad' punchline.