The good news about a Super Bowl is that even when the game doesn’t deliver, fans at least have the commercials and the halftime show to fall back on.
Super Bowl LIX certainly didn’t deliver from an entertainment standpoint, so there was perhaps even more attention given to the commercials and Kendrick Lamar’s halftime performance.
But viewers in some markets were left confused late in Sunday’s game when rapper Kanye West appeared in a vertical video advertisement for his Yeezy apparel brand.
Kanye West Super Bowl 59 commercial (2025) pic.twitter.com/nTyeS9Ozhg
— curating our culture (@curatingourcult) February 10, 2025
“So what’s up guys,” West began, appearing to be laying down in a dentist’s chair. “I spent like all the money for the commercial on these new teeth, so once again I had to shoot it on the iPhone. Uhh…umm…umm…go to Yeezy.com.”
The spot comes one year following a very similar commercial that West aired during last year’s Super Bowl.
YEEZY COMMERCIAL #SuperBowl : pic.twitter.com/wVPtMTGNom
— YEFANATICS (@yefanatics) February 12, 2024
According to a report in The Hollywood Reporter, the commercial did not air nationally. Joe Flint of the Wall Street Journal reports that the spot was aired in Los Angeles, Philadelphia, and Atlanta — all stations that are owned and operated by Fox Corporation. The ad aired again later Sunday night approximately two hours after the game ended.
To air the spot at all is a puzzling decision. West has spent much of the week posting antisemitic rhetoric on social media, including praise for Adolf Hitler and identifying as a Nazi. As of Monday morning, users that go to West’s apparel website will find just a single t-shirt available for purchase: a white t-shirt featuring a black swastika.
Fox allowed Kanye West to buy a Super Bowl at pointing to his Yeezy website where he’s selling swastika branded t-shirts, because of course we’re in the new Nazi normal
— Jeff Yang (@originalsp.in) February 10, 2025 at 12:01 AM
Last week, West aired a Yeezy advertisement during the Grammys, though the spot was promoting actual apparel and didn’t feature the rapper himself.
At this point, there really isn’t any excuse for platforming someone like West on television’s biggest stage. Of course, those optics look even poorer when considering Fox’s history with West.
In October 2022, Fox News’ Tucker Carlson (who has since been fired by the network) sat down with West for a wide-ranging and lengthy interview. Days later, it was discovered that Fox had intentionally cut portions of the interview where West made overtly antisemitic comments in an effort to portray the rapper in a sympathetic light.
That incident clearly did not put Kanye on any “no fly list” for Fox, who was seemingly fine with selling ad space to him even after the 2022 debacle. The network even continued to use his music during NFL broadcasts in the aftermath of the Carlson interview.
The situation is even more ironic considering Fox also aired two advertisements from the Foundation to Combat Antisemitism during Sunday’s game.
Sure, there’s something to be said about free speech, but there’s a clear line crossed when considering West’s consistently inflammatory rhetoric over several years. Allowing him to buy ad inventory during the Super Bowl only helps legitimize his wholly illegitimate beliefs.
And ultimately, the buck stops with Fox when it comes to keeping stuff like this off the air. The network did not immediately respond to request for comment.
