In the weeks leading up to the Super Bowl, an investor community on Reddit called “r/WallStreetBets” took the financial world by storm, challenging the system by driving up the prices of seemingly underwhelming stocks. A media frenzy quickly ensued across the nation, causing a stir in Washington, DC, and sparking debate as to whether this was any different from what goes on at hedge funds.

Reddit was facing a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. We had to do something to capitalize on the moment and champion the power of Reddit communities to achieve incredible things. So, what better way than to hack the Super Bowl? But the Reddit community is notoriously tough and very anti-advertising, so we had to do it in a way that remained true to the brand. Oh, and we had only a week to make the commercial, from presentation to production to air.

The idea was simple: Let’s disrupt the biggest moment in the ad world, just like our Reddit users disrupted the financial world, by airing a low-budget commercial at the Super Bowl, proving that small groups can achieve some pretty massive things.