Kanye West likely to dodge ‘legal blowback’ over Super Bowl ad, claims legal expert

Kanye West's Super Bowl commercial turned controversial when he swapped merchandise for a swastika T-shirt. Legal expert believes he will not face consequences.

Kanye West sparked controversy with a shocking Super Bowl commercial that aired during the big game in New Orleans. Initially intended to promote the Yeezy website’s apparel, the 15-second ad quickly took a dark turn when, just an hour after airing, West replaced all items on his site with a white T-shirt emblazoned with a black swastika. Despite his rants on X about being a Nazi, the ad has raised legal concerns, though experts claimed he is unlikely to face any consequences.

Kanye West's Super Bowl ad promoting Yeezy apparel took a controversial turn when he replaced items with a T-shirt featuring a swastika and the legal expert believes he may avoid consequences.(Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP)

Kanye West likely to skip any legal troubles after Super Bowl ad

Attorney Camron Downlatshahi, a Los Angeles-based lawyer specialising in high-profile employment cases, believes West may have escaped legal repercussions for his controversial Super Bowl ad stunt. According to him, while the incident raised alarms, it is unlikely West will face any significant legal consequences due to the nature of the advertising and product changes.

He shared with The US Sun, “If Ye wanted to sell a product, and those who reviewed the ad saw uncontroversial athletic clothing on his site, there doesn't seem to be a specific reason to pull this particular ad, because it's reasonable to assume that his ad was going to be exactly what was initially presented on its face.”

Downlatshahi continued, “His past offhand remarks, no matter how unhinged, aren't necessarily a reason to pull an ad that contained nothing questionable — at least in the original version. Superbowl ads are a business enterprise first, and there was nothing remarkable in the ad itself — only in what the website was changed to after the fact."

Both Fox and Nexstar executives reportedly checked the Yeezy site and found only standard athletic wear, contradicting Kanye's later actions. Downlatshahi shared with the news outlet, “There is nothing harmful, offensive, defamatory, or illegal in the ad itself, so I do not expect any legal blowback. Major corporations like Fox or the NFL would seemingly have competent legal counsel that would advise against a frivolous lawsuit."

West’s Super Bowl ad reflects a ‘sad’ situation

The situation however could result in a Yeezy blocked from displaying ads during Super Bowl in the future. The attorney said, “If Ye tries to buy another Superbowl ad next year, however, networks will not be able to reasonably say they had no inkling that things could go sideways. They would be wise to be on guard in any dealings with Ye from now on."

He described the entire situation as “sad that Jewish-Americans have to have this symbol of hate and murder peddled in the form of a T-shirt, in a Superbowl bait-and-switch."

Downlatshahi continued, “People are rightly offended and rightly reject this. Tragically, it's just one more slap at the Jewish community — the community that has begged people to heed the words 'Never Again' for more than half a century. But this is just one more piece of evidence that anti-semitism is something we haven't managed to eradicate."

first publicly made antisemitic comments in 2022, which led to a major backlash in Hollywood. Despite this, the U.S. Sun recently revealed that he visited a Jewish congregation in Los Angeles just weeks after the controversy. However, the congregation's leader expressed that he "didn't want" the rapper's "publicity stunt.”

The attorney said, “Ye has not only made offensive, controversial, anti-semitic remarks in the past but has also been plausibly described as mentally ill. So none of this lands as new, shocking information that no one could have possibly seen coming. Hopefully, people will finally cancel him and take a hard stance against supporting him in any kind of way. His mental health is not an excuse."