Five Commercials from the 2010s That Aged Remarkably Badly
Sometimes advertisements are released that immediately come across as offensive. Ashton Kutcher's decision to do brownface to sell potato chips comes to mind. Other times, a commercial is released that’s perfectly fine at the time, but as the world’s story unspools, it retroactively becomes highly unpleasant. There’s not really anyone to blame, if we grant the general industry the benefit of the doubt on knowing about celebrity behavior and keeping it under wraps. It’s just an unfortunate truth that sometimes, later actions or old skeletons from a commercial’s star suddenly make it retroactively a disaster.
Here are five commercials from the 2010s that are massively yikes-worthy in hindsight…
Kevin Spacey’ s Creepy Camera Ad
Spacey is very good at playing menacing characters, something that makes horrible sense now. So an ad for an Olympus digital camera where he looks directly at you and asks if you’ve ever taken “a photo that hurts every time you look at it” hits entirely different knowing he's very possibly a legitimate psychopath. Replace that white void with basement walls, and you can practically feel the shackles on your wrist where he chained you to the radiator.
Diddy’ s French Vanilla Flavored CÎROC
Diddy’s media presence has always been pretty prolific. So it’s no surprise that there’s a handful of commercials the companies would probably prefer to edit him out of as his alleged sexual crimes come to light. This one, for his own vodka brand CÎROC, which I have to assume is currently taking a pretty gnarly hit on optics, is especially squirm-worthy now. Specifically, when part of the ad is him sneaking the vodka into different foodstuffs and drinks, and then warning the camera not to tell anyone.
Kobe Bryant Blows Up Kanye’ s Helicopter
From a six-minute promotional Nike film, this scene featuring Kanye and Kobe is already not overflowing with positive vibes. The tragic death of one and the complete mental breakdown and descent into anti-Semitism of the other is enough to add a stink to the affair. The real “oh god” moment, however, happens near the end, where Kobe, uh, throws a basketball-shaped bomb at the helicopter Kanye is in, causing it to explode.
Matt Gaetz’ Campaign Ad Against Child Predators
This one was remarkably tough to find on YouTube, so credit to the GOP’s internet cleaning team. Gaetz, who is currently dogged by allegations ranging from statutory rape to sex trafficking of a minor, appears touting his iron fist on the issue in this 2015 campaign ad. Something else that hasn’t aged well? That haircut. He looks like the summer manager of an ice cream shop.
Macy’s Ad Doubles Up on Oopsies
The actual content of this ad is largely inoffensive. The impressively unfortunate decision is that Macy’s decided to feature both Donald Trump and P. Diddy in the span of the same 60 seconds. Watching this ad now is enough to trigger a descending feeling of doom about the world’s current and future state, all in under a minute.