Ye, the rapper and designer formerly known by the moniker Kanye West, premiered a commercial in selected markets during the Super Bowl, promoting a website that offered a solitary product: T-shirts adorned with swastikas. The 30-second spot featured Ye, lying in a dentist's chair, apparently capturing a close-up of his face. With a broad smile directed at the camera, he remarked, "I've spent virtually all the money allocated for the commercial on these new teeth. So, once again, I was compelled to shoot it on my iPhone." Subsequently, he steered viewers towards his online store, Yeezy.com, where, as of early Tuesday, only one item was available for purchase: a $20 white T-shirt featuring a prominent black swastika.
According to Variety, when the commercial debuted on Sunday night, the website offered a variety of unbranded clothing options. However, shortly thereafter, it solely featured the controversial shirt. By Tuesday morning, Ye's online storefront seemed to have vanished, replaced by a message stating, "This store is unavailable." A spokesperson from Shopify, the online platform that facilitated the website's transactions, revealed that Ye's store "failed to adhere to genuine commerce practices and breached our terms, prompting us to remove it from Shopify."
The advertisement emerged mere days after Ye embarked on a social media frenzy, where he self-identified as a Nazi and professed his admiration for Adolf Hitler. Subsequently, he deactivated his X account. On Monday, the Anti-Defamation League issued a stern condemnation of the commercial, posting on X that "there is absolutely no justification for such conduct." They emphasized, "The swastika, adopted by Hitler as the Nazi Party's primary emblem, rallied his followers in the 20th century and persists as a symbol that threatens and instills fear among those targeted by antisemitism and white supremacy."
Earlier in the year, Ye launched a perplexing collection of clothing on his online store, including garments adorned with cryptic or nonsensical messages in Cyrillic and Greek script. Hoodies, sweatpants, and shorts bore Russian phrases such as "Herald Tribune," which linguistic experts deemed devoid of any hidden meaning within the language.
Fox, the broadcaster of the Super Bowl, did not promptly respond to a request for comment on Tuesday. It appears that Ye purchased the advertisement for local markets, rather than opting for a national broadcast, according to The Hollywood Reporter. The advertisement aired again on Fox in the same markets on Sunday, shortly after the game concluded. National Super Bowl ads can command millions of dollars, whereas local ads, targeted to specific locations, are significantly more affordable.
A representative for Ye did not immediately respond to a request for comment. In 2022, Ye was suspended from X following a series of offensive posts, including an image depicting a swastika inscribed within the Star of David. Elon Musk, the platform's owner, stated at the time that the post contravened X's policy against inciting violence. Approximately eight months later, his account was reinstated, and in 2023, Ye apologized to the Jewish community with a Hebrew-language post on Instagram. In the past, Ye has disclosed a diagnosis of bipolar disorder, but in a podcast interview released last week, he claimed that he had been misdiagnosed and now believes he has autism.
