A heartwarming Cetaphil commercial that first aired in the lead-up to the 2024 Super Bowl has drawn both praise and criticism. In the ad, called #GameTimeGlow, a father’s attempts to connect with his daughter finally take hold when the daughter, a Swiftie (who is also into skincare), takes an interest in watching football after Taylor Swift’s appearances at the Chiefs games. As they sit on the couch together, his wrist, adorned with friendship bracelets, is featured prominently.
When the commercial debuted on Friday, many Swifties and others remarked on its tear-jerking qualities and the improbability of being moved to cry by an ad for a cleanser.
Swifties praised the commercial for reflecting their own relationships with their dads. “This is exactly me and my father’s situation,” one person wrote in the YouTube comments. “I’m a huge swiftie, and he is a huge NFL fan, and I can’t even explain how much we bonded over those games.”
Over the weekend, however, some criticized the ad, with some saying the dad only connected with his daughter when she took an interest in his hobby. But the main criticism arrived when a TikTok creator made a video claiming that the skincare company stole the idea for the advertisement from her content. In Sharon Mbabazi’s original video, shared in September, the creator is doing her makeup as her stepdad reads off stats about Taylor Swift’s impact on the NFL. The creator took to TikTok to call the company out and posted videos aimed at the skincare brand.
“Y’all, Cetaphil legit copied the TikToks I made with my stepdad back in September,” she said in her video. “Like, y’all could have at least given us some credit.”
Mbabazi and her stepfather made another video where they used audio from a Euphoria scene where one of the characters asked, “Is this f-cking play about us?”
They also uploaded a third video in which they discuss the commercial, and Mbabazi’s stepfather says, “That is a beautiful story that you have in your commercial that’s going to be on the Super Bowl, but it’s our story.” He then goes on to say that Cetpahil stole the content his daughter made.
On Sunday evening, Mbabazi uploaded a video shortly after the game began and said the company made contact with her. “Cetaphil has reached out, they’ve acknowledged all the videos, and they’ve made things right with us,” Mbabazi said. However, she and her stepfather did not go into detail about their conversations with the brand.
TIME reached out to Mbabazi and Cetaphil for comment, but did not immediately hear back.
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