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Celebrity endorsements can be a quick and efficient way to get your product publicity and can vastly increase its sales. It can also backfire, either comically or horrifically. Many celebrity endorsements were either tone-deaf or poorly timed like when OJ Simpson did commercials for Hertz around the same time he got into a car chase with police.
But, despite advertisers' best attempts to make content that just sells the product, they can still run into problematic themes or interpretations of their work. Some ads have been accused of using racist, sexist, or homophobic themes, and when celebrities are involved with such ads, it leads to problems for everyone involved in the ad, especially the stars.
8 Mr. T - Snickers
Although the commercial only aired in the U.K., many viewers and organizations, including Human Rights Watch, were very uncomfortable with a Snickers ad starring the '80s icon. The ad shows a runner, who is vaguely effeminate, running away from the always butch Mr. T as he pelts him with Snickers bars via a candy machine gun. Many felt the ad was homophobic and soon after airing, Snickers pulled the commercial and apologized for the "shameful" ad. Mr. T also apologized but also defended himself, "I am not homophobic...I would never do a commercial if I thought it was offensive to anyone."
7 Madonna - Pepsi
While there was nothing wrong with the ad itself, per se, it was the song that Pepsi had paid $5 million for. The commercial used Madonna's "Like A Prayer," and the music video for the song debuted the day after the commercial premiered. In the music video, Madonna witnesses sexual assault and dances around a burning cross, a problematic image for a variety of reasons. Even the Pope had something to say about the video. After mounting pressure and calls to boycott the brand, Pepsi pulled the ad.
6 Scarlett Johansson - SodaStream
Johansson endorsed SodaStream and began appearing in their commercials in 2014. While the ad itself is harmless, activists and peace advocates were furious because SodaStream had factories in the West Bank, a territory in Israel that is one of the main battlegrounds of the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Many felt Johansson was being hypocritical, as she was touting herself as an activist and humanitarian but that her work with SodaStream had forsaken Palestinian victims of the conflict. The company apologized and pulled the ad, while Johansson defended herself. Johansson has rarely apologized for controversial choices she has made, like the times when she has played non-white characters as a white actress.
5 Ashton Kutcher - PopChips
How this one got past the censors is astounding. In full-on brownface, Kutcher, a white man, plays a stereotypical Indian and even goes as far as to do a very offensive Indian accent, all for what? Popchips. The ad was quickly pulled and Kutcher adamantly apologized. Clips of the commercial would be used by Indian comic Aziz Ansari in his show Master of None in an episode about Indian stereotypes and brownface in Hollywood.
4 Kendall Jenner - Pepsi
As the Black Lives Matter movement was gaining momentum, especially after the election of Donald Trump in 2016 (who lost the popular vote but won because of the electoral college) Pepsi thought it would be funny to mock the growing protest movement with an ad featuring Kendall Jenner. In the ad, Jenner makes peace with the protesters and police by giving the armored riot cops a Pepsi. The internet was enraged, calling the ad tone deaf as a cornerstone of the BLM movement is their demand that police brutality and racial profiling must end. Both Jenner and Pepsi have apologized, but the ad continues to be an inside joke among leftists to this day.
3 Matt Damon - Crypto.com
Matt Damon was one of the most prominent stars to get into cryptocurrency, and one of its most vocal supporters. Thoroughly convinced it was the future, Damon not only encouraged people to invest heavily in Crypto, but he also did several ads for Crpyto.com. The ads would end up being severely mocked by critics of cryptocurrency, and the mockery only doubled when the crypto market crashed in 2022. Damon made a commercial "apologizing" for being so enthusiastic about such a volatile and unregulated market, but critics still argue it is too little too late as several people have lost thousands of dollars at the behest of this kind of unsound financial advice.
2 Sharon Stone - Christian Dior
Initially, there was nothing controversial about Sharon Stone modeling for Christian Dior products, nor was there anything wrong with their commercials. But Stone enraged Chinese citizens and Dior customers when she said that an earthquake that happened in China, which killed thousands, was the nation's bad karma for "occupying Tibet." The Chinese government was so enraged she was labeled a "public enemy" and her films were banned in the country. Dior eventually apologized and her ads have been pulled from China, which at the time was Dior's fastest-growing market.
1 LeBron James - Nike
Another commercial series that Nike took exception to was the Chamber of Fear ads starring LeBron James early in his career. Many felt the ads were belittling Chinese culture and depended on Chinese stereotypes. The company eventually apologized for what some were calling "kung fu footwear" ads.
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