Imagine a major company that generates nearly $30 million a year in annual revenue scoping out your viral video and lifting your idea for a commercial to air during one of the biggest sporting events, only behind events like the World Cup and the Olympics, without consulting you. That is exactly what TikTok creator Sharon Mbabazi and her father claim skincare company Cetaphil did to them.
News that the company was airing a commercial featuring a biracial daughter and her white father and would incorporate Taylor Swift hit the internet on Feb. 9.
The concept of the commercial, which Cetaphil paid approximately $21 million to air during the Super Bowl, centers around a father’s attempts to connect with his daughter through his passion for football. As the father watches his Kansas City Chiefs play, the sports announcer is overheard mentioning the “most famous fan of the game” in reference to Taylor Swift, who became a frequent attendee at the games when she began dating Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce last year.
His daughter, who is consumed with things most young women are into — like her makeup and skin care — finds common ground with her father, a Kansas City Chiefs fan, through watching Taylor Swift make special appearance in the stands.
Mbabazi is under the impression that the skin care brand swiped the advertisement concept from a series of TikTok videos she and her stepfather did in September 2023. Specifically, the parts where their main character, a white father, playfully enters the room of his Black daughter while she sits at her vanity doing her skin care routine. In Mbabazi’s videos, her stepfather routinely enters her room every Sunday after the Chiefs game and updates her on Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce’s relationship as she does her makeup at her vanity. In some videos, he also participates in her skin care routine with her.
“Cetaphil stole this idea from my tiktoks with my step-dad but OK,” Mbabazi tweeted. “Not me beefing with Cetaphil how did we get here.”
She is not the only one who saw the ad and thought that.
“Cetaphil stole the concept from a creator on TikTok, made it with the Taylor Swift spin and boom you have your ad. This is the creator they got the idea from,” one X user wrote.
Cetaphil stole the concept from a creator on TikTok, made it with the Taylor Swift spin and boom you have your ad. This is the creator they got the idea from. pic.twitter.com/TqlytFEeqF
— Lisa: Digital Marketer (@lisadigital_) February 10, 2024
The content creator pinned the old videos to the top of her TikTok profile after expressing how violated she felt.
“Cetaphil legit copied the TikTok I made with my stepdad back in September,” she said from her car. “Y’all could have at least given us some credit. What’s up?”
She continued, “It’s the fact that they have a mixed-race girl in the video with a white dad. I’m a Black girl. My stepdad is white. 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 tells me about football.”
In the first video, posted on Sept. 26, 2023, and viewed over 2.7 million times, she does her makeup when her dad comes in and tells her how Kelce has benefited from his famous girlfriend.
She writes across the video, “My stepdad has been updating me on Taylor and Travis every day since Sunday,” adding the caption, “I’ve turned him into a swiftie.” She used hashtags like #taylorswift #traviskelce #kansiscitycheifs #swifties #swifttok #fyp #taylorandtravis to populate her video and appear in algorithms interested in the famous couple’s social media love story.
In the next video, on Sept. 28, 2023, her dad comes in, and she tells him she is doing eye masks and invites him to do them with her— he obliges and continues to update her with his Swift and Kelce commentary.
@sharavinaaa Replying to @theeroyaltea He’s so invested 🤣 #taylorswift #traviskelce #swifttok #swifties #fyp ♬ original sound – Sharon Mbabazi
He starts saying that the “entire football world is upside down” because the singer is at all the games. As he applies his eye masks, Dad says all the commentators “have stopped talking” about the games and only about her. As he jokes that she should become the “new commissioner since she runs the NFL” now, Mbabazi asks, “What’s a commissioner?” This video had over half a million views on the app.
In the last video, which had almost 1 million, the dad, with his eye masks on, pops his head in his daughter’s room and says, “5:20 tomorrow, we’re watching the game.” A fan asks her in the comments, “Can we make this a series???”
She said she thought it might be a coincidence that there were similarities until she saw the dad walk in and “put the skincare under his eyes,” like what is done in their video. In two separate videos, her dad joins her, and the two express their outrage.
“Is this f—king play about us?” a voiceover says as the dad brings his phone to the screen with the commercial in clear view.
In the second video, the dad shares his feelings about the commercial.
He says, still wearing the eye masks put with them on his cheeks like football players place grease strips under theirs, “Here’s the deal, Cetaphil. That is a beautiful story that you have in your commercial … but it is our story.”
“My daughter made the content that you stole,” he says, pointing to her as she giggles at how cute he is advocating for her. He continues to say he doesn’t know if the skin care brand hired a company to create the ad for them, but those creatives “bar for bar” stole Mbabazi’s work.
Now the new Taylor Swift fans issued a call: “Here’s what I want. Swiftie nation, do your thing! Taylor Swift, call them out on it. Travis, call them out. What’s right is what’s right.”
The request did not go unnoticed, but not necessarily by Swifties.
“No, because she & her stepdad have been making these TikTok vids since last year,” one person tweeted. “Cetaphil took their whole storyline. This one’s from September & has over 2.5 million views. If y’all still wanna cry, go watch the real vids made by this Black creator.”
Another person also blasted the company, “A lot of praise on here for Cetaphil’s Super Bowl commercial, but TikTok user Sharon Mbabazi (and her stepdad) are claiming the brand stole the concept from their real story/viral content. here’s one of their original TikToks (2.6M views) and then the response to the commercial.”
a lot of praise on here for cetaphil’s super bowl commercial, but tiktok user sharon mbabazi (and her step dad) are claiming the brand stole the concept from their real story/viral content. here’s one of their original tiktoks (2.6M views) and then the response to the commercial. pic.twitter.com/zsmO0wdZjW
— Rachel Karten (@milkkarten) February 10, 2024
On Sunday, Feb. 11, just in time for the Super Bowl, Mbabazi and her stepfather issued an update to supporters.
“We just want to thank you guys so much for all the love and support you’ve been showing on my page, and we want to say that Cetaphil has reached out, and they’ve acknowledged all the videos and all the content, and they’ve made things right with us,” said Sharon.
Sharon’s stepfather added, “It’s important to note that Cetaphil spent a lot of time working with us, and ultimately, they will represent Sharon and her brand well.”
While they didn’t go into detail about whether Sharon would be compensated, she did note that something would be coming “later.”
