How Kanye Tricked Super Bowl Advertisers Into Promoting Swastika Shirts
Controversial rapper Kanye West, who goes by 'Ye,' reportedly fooled advertisers by buying 'weird' TV ads that showed him in a dental chair, directing viewers to his website, yeezy.com.
During the Super Bowl, the ads ran on TV in some regions to promote his clothing site.
After making the placement deal, West pulled a bait-and-switch, removing the products on his site and replacing them with a single item for sale: a white T-shirt with a swastika in the center.
USIM, which placed the ad, said they found only 'general athletic apparel' upon their initial review of the site.
USIM said they cut ties with West on Friday after discovering his X posts. The company directed stations to stop airing the ad Monday when they discovered what was being sold on the site.
The Wall Street Journal reports that the ad deal occurred shortly before West went on a now-infamous antisemitic tirade on X. West declared himself a Nazi and made remarks such as, 'whip your Jews' and 'I love Hitler.'
West's account was deactivated on Sunday shortly after Elon Musk posted about West.
'Given what he has posted, his account is now classified as NSFW,' he said. 'You should not be seeing that anymore.'
Fox aired the ad Sunday on its Los Angeles, Philadelphia, and Atlanta stations, and Nexstar Media ran it on its St. Louis Fox affiliate station. The ad aired around 9:30 p.m. ET in most places and it attracted major attention on social media, though most of the country did not see it on television.
Shopify, which hosted West's online store, closed the account on Tuesday.
'This merchant did not engage in authentic commerce practices and violated our terms so we removed them from Shopify,' the company wrote. 'All merchants are responsible for following the rules of our platform.'
Visitors to yeezy.com have since found out that the site no longer works.
The spot may have slipped through because ads that run regionally are subject to less strict evaluation by standards departments than at the national level.
On Tuesday, an NFL spokesperson said the league was not aware 'of the ad buy or the spot until after it ran.' He added that the NFL 'strongly condemns any form of antisemitism.'
A request for comment has been sent to Kanye West.
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