Shaggy's "It wasn't me" Super bowl ad song previously used in joint Bank & Dubai police anti-fraud campaign

Shaggy was one of the many celebrities who appeared in the 2021 Super Bowl commercials, as he revived his hit song "It wasn't me" for Cheetos. 

This wasn't the first time that the song has been the entertaining base of an ad, though. Back in 2019 the song was the basic joke in a bank advert about security, for the bank Emirates NBD. Hat tip to our friend the badlander ninja JoelaPompe for reminding us.

The entire concept for the bank who used Shaggy's song is to educate the bank's customers on online safety by turning it into a sticky mnemonic. The customer tells of all the ways that he was contacted by a scammer; "He even messaged me on WhatsApp" and the bank responds "it wasn't me."

Bank security is a rather dry subject to have to communicate, and an added layer of seriousness was that this ad was created together with the Dubai police, who also shared it on their social media channels as well. The ad was released by Emirates NBD and the Dubai Police on June 27, 2019.

The Cheetos ad created for the 2021 Super Bowl by the ad agency Goodby Silverstein & Partners has the same basic concept. Shaggy's song form the basis of the idea, except in this ad it's Mila Kunis snacking on Cheetos and Ashton Kutcher who keeps catching her so she can sign "it wasn't me."

The ad was directed by Bryan Buckley and production company was Hungry Man.

The thing about basing an idea on a song is, someone else might have beat you to it.