By J. Kim Murphy
Fathers love football. Daughters love pop stars. This is one of the bedrock truths of the American family. How can these two disparate worlds be reconciled? Cetaphil is showing they can with a new commercial that draws on Taylor Swift’s frequent attendance at Kansas City Chiefs games in support of her boyfriend, tight end Travis Kelce.
The advertisement, shared Friday and set to air during the Super Bowl broadcast Sunday, features a “real father and daughter, living in New York.” In it, the father fails to get his daughter interested in something on his phone. He retracts the device, dejected and distraught. How can he ever connect with his daughter? Meanwhile, the teenager takes her microwaved snacks upstairs and retreats to her room, beginning a Cetaphil-centric skin care routine.
But she perks up when she hears the commentator on the TV downstairs say, “Well folks, there she is. It’s the most famous fan of the game.” The daughter slides down the stairwell to the living room to find her father, beer and pretzel snacks in hand. He reaches down for the remote to turn up the volume. He knows that his daughter will watch football now. He is happy.
No NFL broadcast footage is ever shown, nor are Swift or Kelce’s names specifically mentioned. Additionally, the jerseys that the father and daughter don at the end of the commercial aren’t official Chiefs merchandise, though they do sport the team’s trademark shade of red. However, one of the final images of the ad is of the fathers’ wrist, positively coated in various friendship bracelets — a key motif of Taylor Swift lore, as many of her fans can attest to.
Watch the commercial below.
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