Kanye West has appeared in a very low-budget Yeezy Super Bowl commercial after he blew his budget buying the airtime.
A 30-second commercial during the Super Bowl reportedly costs around $7 million, making it the most expensive form of advertising in the world.
The commercial, which is believed to have aired in Chicago and Miami only, saw West filming himself with his phone and talking to the camera while plugging his new sneakers.
“Aye y’all, this Ye, and this is my commercial. And since we spent all the money on the commercial spot, we actually didn’t spend any money on the actual commercial,” he says.
“But the idea is: I want you to go to Yeezy.com — Y-E-E-Z-Y dot com; I’ma write it at the bottom of the screen — and I got some shoes aaaand mmmmm… that’s it.”
The advert appeared to be for the Yeezy Pod, a sock-like shoe that was unveiled in December.
The shoe was originally retailed for $200 but all items on the Yeezy website — including merch for his new album with Ty Dolla $ign, Vultures 1 — are currently available for $20.
In a clip from his upcoming interview with Justin Laboy, Kanye West explained the decision to drastically lower the price point of his Yeezy items, which have previously retailed for hundreds of dollars.
“I’m a bit of a Robin Hood in a way where people can say, ‘Okay, this multibillionaire spent $4 million on Balenciaga in one year,’ but did I bring the designs back down to earth?
“As much as I could because Gap didn’t take it to $20 the way I wanted to. ‘Cause they were still trying to protect the classism of the idea of Balenciaga and the idea of Gap.”
West appeared to unveil a different Super Bowl commercial prior to the game that featured a woman running on a treadmill in a “WET” tank top while his Vultures 1 track “Back to Me” played, but it doesn’t seem to have been used.
Ye’s busy weekend began with Vultures 1 finally hitting streaming services but not without issues as it was not initially available on Spotify and was later temporarily removed from Apple Music.
The album was also the subject of controversy after the estate of Donna Summer claimed that he sampled her classic track “I Feel Love” without permission on his song “Good (Don’t Die)”.
“Kanye West asked permission to use Donna Summer song, ‘I Feel Love,’ [but] he was denied,” the late singer’s estate said on Instagram.. “He changed the words, had someone re-sing it, or used AI but it’s ‘I Feel Love’…copyright infringement!”