00:00Sidney Stweeney, Hasbro Keynes.
00:02You see what I did there, right?
00:03Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we're counting down our picks for the celebrity-starring commercials
00:07that sparked outrage, controversy, and got people talking for all the wrong reasons.
00:12You thought you was gonna catch me?
00:14Keep your mouth shut.
00:14No!
00:15Keep your mouth shut.
00:16Number 10.
00:17Paris Hilton for Carl's Jr.
00:19Carl's Jr. has long-corded controversy with ad campaigns that lean heavily on sexualized imagery,
00:24particularly their depiction of women.
00:25In 2012, supermodel Kate Upton starred in an extra spicy ad for the fast food chain.
00:34However, in 2005, it was Paris Hilton who appeared in a controversial TV spot,
00:39washing a Bentley in a swimsuit before taking a steamy bite of a burger.
00:46The Parents Television Council slammed the commercial while CEO Andy Puzder brushed off the criticism,
00:51insisting the outrage was overblown.
00:53The ad became iconic for its overt sexualization of fast food advertising and, for better or worse,
00:58helped define the chain's risque marketing era.
01:07Number 9.
01:08Marina Abramovich for Microsoft
01:09In 2020, tech giant Microsoft teamed up with famed performance artist Marina Abramovich
01:15to promote its HoloLens 2 headset through an immersive art project called The Life.
01:19I believe that art of the future is art without objects.
01:23The ad showcased Abramovich's avant-garde work in augmented reality,
01:26but the internet saw something else entirely.
01:28The first thing that we had to figure out was you had to feel that you were in the room with Marina,
01:35not a document of Marina.
01:36Within days, conspiracy theorists flooded the web with wild claims that the campaign promoted Satanism.
01:42Others quickly jumped on the bandwagon and condemned the video leading Microsoft to take it down.
01:47Abramovich later said she was devastated by the smear campaign,
01:51proof that even the most abstract art can ignite real-world firestorms in the age of viral outrage.
01:56The life is dealing with what is going to stay after I'm not there anymore.
02:00Number 8.
02:00Mary J. Blige for Burger King
02:02Mary J. Blige, the queen of hip-hop soul,
02:04is not exactly who you'd expect to see singing about chicken wraps under fluorescent lights.
02:09But that's exactly what happened in a 2012 Burger King commercial that sparked instant backlash.
02:13The ad featured Blige belting about crispy chicken in a jingle that many viewers,
02:28especially within the black community, felt leaned into tired and offensive racial stereotypes.
02:33Critics slammed both Blige and Burger King for reducing a Grammy-winning artist to a caricature
02:38in the name of fast food.
02:39Burger King first blamed a licensing issue before admitting the ad wasn't cleared for release,
02:44and Blige later expressed her disappointment saying she was pitched a very different concept.
02:49The new chicken snack wraps, come and get it at Burger King.
02:54Number 7.
02:54Danica Patrick and Bar Raffaele for GoDaddy
02:57There are two sides to GoDaddy.
02:59There's the sexy side represented by Bar Raffaele,
03:02and the smart side that creates a killer website for your small business represented by Walter.
03:07GoDaddy built its brand on being flashy, racy, and borderline offensive,
03:11and nowhere was that more obvious than in its Super Bowl XLVII ad.
03:14The spot featured race car driver Danica Patrick introducing sexy supermodel Bar Raffaele
03:19and smart actor Jesse Hyman before the two locked lips in an awkward, drawn-out kiss.
03:24The message was supposedly that GoDaddy is the perfect mix of brains and beauty,
03:32though we're pretty sure few viewers walked away thinking about domain names.
03:36The ad was widely slammed for objectifying Raffaele in mocking Hyman's appearance for cheap laughs.
03:41It went viral, but the backlash was strong enough to push GoDaddy away from this advertising playbook.
03:45Get your domain and website at GoDaddy.com
03:48Number 6, Jason Bateman for Hyundai
03:50Hello, folks. What floor?
03:52Oh, we're car shopping.
03:53Ah, you're going down. Way down.
03:56Hyundai's 2019 Super Bowl ad, Elevator, starring celebrated actor Jason Bateman,
04:01took viewers on a ride through life's most dreaded experiences,
04:04including Jerry Doody, Root Canals, and a vegan dinner party.
04:08Vegan dinner party? Is that even a thing?
04:10We're having beetloaf, Sergio's specialty.
04:12Why, thank you.
04:13Yay!
04:13Yep, apparently attending a non-meat soiree was akin to culinary torture.
04:17But the gag didn't sit well with vegans who blasted the commercial for mocking plant-based lifestyles
04:22and reinforcing negative stereotypes.
04:24PETA called the ad shameful and used the opportunity to highlight real ethical issues in the meat and dairy industries.
04:30Hyundai tried to walk it back, saying it was all in good fun and not an outright attack on veganism.
04:34Not so fast, Captain Cullen. Back it up. Thank you.
04:37Number 5, Sydney Sweeney for American Eagle.
04:40I'm not here to tell you to buy American Eagle jeans.
04:42And I definitely won't say that they're the most comfortable jeans I've ever worn.
04:47Sydney Sweeney's American Eagle campaign has done a great job of stirring up the internet.
04:51Unfortunately, it's for all the wrong reasons.
04:52Sydney Sweeney's new ad is deeply, deeply unsettling to me.
04:56You see, in her denim-clad ads, the Euphoria star plays on the word jeans,
05:00linking inherited traits like eye color and personality to her blue jeans,
05:04all while the camera lingers sensually on her blonde hair, blue eyes, and famous hourglass figure.
05:08My jeans are blue.
05:09But critics didn't buy the clever wordplay.
05:11Many believe the implication is that Sydney Sweeney's jeans with a G are superior.
05:16Many slammed the campaign as a thinly-veiled dog whistle for eugenics,
05:19arguing that casting Sweeney as the face of good jeans glorifies outdated and dangerous ideals of whiteness.
05:25Sydney Sweeney has very keen.
05:27You see what I did there, right?
05:29Number 4, Various Celebrities for Gambling Ads.
05:31Join Bet365 now and discover the power of the world's favorite sports book.
05:37When Ontario, Canada legalized online gambling in April 2022, the industry exploded,
05:42racking up over $35 billion in bets and more than $1.4 billion in revenue in its first year alone.
05:49But the real gamble came with the advertising.
05:51Suddenly, big-name stars like Aaron Paul and Jamie Foxx were everywhere,
05:55glamorizing online casinos and slick high-budget promos.
05:58Come on, Steve, give it a king.
05:59It's king time, Steve.
06:00Give it a king, Steve.
06:00Steve, we need a king, Steve.
06:01Give it a king, Steve.
06:02Give it a king, Steve.
06:02We got the king.
06:03Let's get it.
06:04Let's get it.
06:06Woo!
06:06Critics warned that using celebrities blurred the line between entertainment and addiction,
06:11especially for younger viewers.
06:12By August 2023, the backlash forced Ontario's Alcohol and Gaming Commission to step in.
06:18The result?
06:18Why that would be banning all celebrity-endorsed gambling ads that appeal to minors.
06:22He got the king.
06:23I got it.
06:25He got the king.
06:26Number 3, Tyler, the Creator for Mountain Dew.
06:30Mountain Dew took a wild swing at offbeat humor in the early 2010s when they partnered with
06:34Tyler, the Creator for a series of quirky, youth-oriented ads emphasizing edgy humor and
06:38creative branding.
06:39Get it, Ruffy.
06:40You're a nasty goat.
06:41I'm nasty.
06:42However, the surreal trilogy went off the rails in the final installment.
06:46You thought you was gonna catch me?
06:48Keep your mouth shut.
06:49No.
06:49Keep your mouth shut.
06:50The ad showed Felicia, a talking goat, intimidating a witness from a police lineup where all the suspects,
06:55aside from the goat, were young black men.
06:57Several of them were actually Tyler's own friends and members of the collective Odd Future.
07:01However, critics and viewers were quick to slam the spot for perpetuating harmful racial
07:05stereotypes and trivializing police profiling regardless of its surrealist intent.
07:10You're never gonna catch me!
07:11Number 2, Ashton Kutcher for Popchips.
07:14This wasn't just a bad ad, it was a full-blown PR disaster.
07:18In 2012, Popchips aired a commercial featuring Ashton Kutcher in, wait for it, Brownface.
07:23Yup, portraying a cringeworthy caricature of an Indian man named Raj.
07:27Kutcher was meant to be part of a fake dating profile sketch.
07:30Naturally, viewers were quick to call out the depiction for being racially insensitive
07:33and just flat-out unfunny.
07:35Life is short, strike a match at WorldWideLovers.com.
07:39Making matters worse, Kutcher wasn't just the star, he was also Popchips' so-called president
07:44of pop culture, meaning he had creative input in developing the campaign.
07:47So, who am I?
07:48I am Dara.
07:49Predictably, the backlash was as strong as it was Swift, leading the company to pull the ad
07:53and issue an apology.
07:54Okay, look, maybe Popchips consciously didn't want to offend minorities, but subconsciously,
08:00they knew they could get away with clowning Indians and Asians.
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08:18Number one, Kendall Jenner for Pepsi.
08:20Pop quiz, how do you end racism?
08:22Simple, have Kendall Jenner hand a police officer a can of Pepsi.
08:30That was the baffling premise of this 2017 Pepsi ad, which showed Jenner leaving a glamorous
08:40photo shoot to join a protest and magically ease tensions by offering a soda to law enforcement.
08:45The commercial was immediately slammed for trivializing real-life protest movements,
08:48especially during the Black Lives Matter movement.
08:51Critics and viewers alike condemned it for suggesting that deep-rooted issues like systemic racism
08:56and police brutality could be resolved with a soft drink and a smile from a celebrity.
09:00When I first got this offer, I mean, it's a huge company.
09:03The people I was following were so iconic and amazing.
09:07Michael Jackson's done it.
09:08Britney Spears has done it.
09:09Beyonce has done it.
09:10Pink, the list goes on.
09:13So, to get something like that is just…
09:16It was so exciting.
09:18And I trusted everyone.
09:19I trusted the teams.
09:20The backlash was fairly relentless, and it still stands his head scratchingly off base.
09:24Do you think these celebrity commercials deserved the backlash or were some overblown?
09:35Let us know in the comments below.
09:36Well, the fun police have found something else to be angry about.
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