So I have a complaint… I always get crappy detergent commercials — the Sapolio detergent Principe commercial suck, and it sucks even harder that women aren’t offended by them, as if women’s only thought in their heads was just to get a man after they’re done with laundry.

But then a couple of weeks ago, I saw Camucha Negrete’s face on a Twitter Ace promoted tweet. Then my mother came to me saying she’s seen the funniest detergent commercial since Ariel’s Chaca Chaca [clip] in the late 70s, which according to a comment on YouTube [1]:

el concepto se creo en México, en los años sesentas, fue Noble y Asociados con la primer Vicepresidenta Creativa, la publicista mexicana Cristina Gutiérrez de la Sierra quien inventó la frase y la hizo fuerte, después, la misma agencia de publicidad llevo el concepto a otros países de latinoamérica. De hecho dicen que ella escribía de una sentada las ideas y frases y es creadora de decenas de conceptos arraigados a la cultura latinoamericana.

Was a concept created in Mexico.

So it’s really no surprise at all that Ace, in all its region in Latin America, has employed the help of the Leo Burnett agency [1] to develop the concept of O Mistério Ace (The Ace Mystery) — for Brazil — or El Misterio del Sostén (The Bra Mystery), which stems from the fact that all Latin American countries have strong Telenovela roots. According to my search, the Brazilian version seems to have come by first with an array of different Portuguese Brazilian accent dubs [1] [2] [3] [4] [5], and the concept has now just made their debuts in different Spanish Latino versions from Argentina, Venezuela, Colombia and Peru.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C3vO_dIJIZk

Note: The Chile version seems to be the same to the Argentina according to the uploads on the Ace Chile YouTube Channel.

In the commercial, the “mother-in-law” (played in the Peruvian version by Camucha Negrete, and different actresses in the others) finds a tarnished bra in her son’s room. Thinking it belongs to her son’s girl, she storms into a restaurant telling her son off, as well as suggesting her “daughter-in-law” to use Ace because it keeps whites clear.

Things then get complicated.

I don’t know how “viral” a detergent commercial can get considering the core of Telenovela audiences aren’t usually hooked online. But it’s a good commercial, nonetheless.