The WORST Super Bowl Advertisement of All-Time

At Super Bowl XXXIII, an advertisement for Just for Feet aired that was so bad, that the ad prompted allegations of racism, sparked a $10 million lawsuit, and led to the company being destroyed almost overnight. This is the story behind the single worst Super Bowl commercial of all-time.
Articles Cited:
www.fundinguniverse.com/compan...
www.salon.com/1999/05/28/kenya/
www.bizjournals.com/birmingha...
www.adweek.com/brand-marketin...
NOTE: At one point during part I of the video, it says "1988" when it should say "1998."

[@aegisofhonor]

the one with the kids raining down shoes on them was great, THAT should have been their Super Bowl ad. Not..."that"...."cringe".

[@mcsweatshop]

i could see the kids one as the start of a tim & eric or i think you should leave sketch.

[@dmi6101]

That ad was hilarious.

[@YeTheGOATNoCap]

10:40 for the ad.

[@christianlcastle98]

Thank you not finna watch a backstory on the Superbowl for one ad

[@Ledatru]

The next challenge is to make this into a 90 minute documentary

[@littleferrhis]

Ruttenburg: “I want a non-controversial, family friendly ad that can bring our name to a national audience” Saatchi and Saatchi: “so you want none of those” Ruttenburg: “no I do want those” Saatchi and Saatchi: “None of those got it!”

[@bonafide9781]

I have a better concept for an ad they could have ran with: With a big marathon in a few days, an elderly woman doesn’t think she wants to participate because she feels that she has two left feet. Her granddaughter takes her to Just for Feet, giving her grandmother more confidence. Cut to a montage set to the Rocky theme with gramma trying on shoes, training for the marathon, and even incorporating the unique parts of the store in the montage. It ends with gramma winning the marathon with her granddaughter cheering her on.

[@gcooper146]

That Nationwide ad in 2015 was pretty bad as well. That was the one where the boy was talking about life milestones that he wouldn't reach before saying he died in an accident

[@rushguy1]

Nationwide: Your Kid Just Died

[@patrickracer43]

I wonder which is worse for the Super Bowl: thinking about dead children or seeing white men in a humvee chasing down a black man? Because both are bad and something that I don't want to think about while watching a football game

[@okolo22000]

If this commercial was deemed THAT offensive and singlehandedly destroyed a company overnight in 1999, just imagine how people would’ve been outraged by this kind of ad now!

[@edrieckrosario3780]

Crazy thing is the owner of the company was African

[@artemorekhov8040]

I feel bad for the poor lion. He didn't even have a clue what kind of mess he was forced to participate in.

[@Ibhenriksen]

"An executive pleaded guilty to fraud" uh...yeah. I think THAT had something to do with their downfall.

[@richsheer4905]

Yes it did. Don’t be a hater. The ad played a role.

[@flagcoco69]

Executives commit fraud all the time. The average shopper doesn't read the Wall Street Journal. The average shopper, however, does watch the Super Bowl.

[@stephengrinkley9889]

@Prince Wojak exactly!

[@spectrevampire]

I put the blame entirely on Saatchi & Saatchi. The guy explicitly said he hated the ad, but the advertisers kept it anyway, assuring him it'd be alright.

[@OldheadBoomer]

Ruttenberg didn't start hating that ad until after it spawned controversy. There were too many Yes Men around him who didn't have the balls to say that the commercial sucked. Even worse was the second spot that S&S did, that never aired. It was called "Dodgeball" and is probably lost to history.

[@flarethefolf78]

@@OldheadBoomer source: trust me bro

[@OldheadBoomer]

@@flarethefolf78 Source: Former JFF corporate exec who spent many years working for Ruttenberg, who hired me in the early 80s.l I was there when he first saw this video.

[@flarethefolf78]

@@OldheadBoomer and where the proof for that? I can say I'm friends with Joe Biden, but it doesn't make it true

[@OldheadBoomer]

No reason to make this up, I started with Feet when they were called Hang Ten / Two Feet Ahead at Century Plaza in Birmingham. That's where I met Harold. I do have proof, but I'm not going to dig old boxes out of storage just to prove something to a stranger on the internet. Oh, and those Yes Men I mentioned; two were his sons. Do you know their names?

[@ThePopcast]

Really good story in this video! Just tighten it up and try not to repeat for effect too much. You nail it the first time. Trust the viewer to be smart enough to get it the first time. We had to learn this when we first started making videos on KZbin. You got this!

[@Gimodon]

I think the dumbest part is how once they put the shoes on the guy he's like "NOOOOO!" and desperately wants them off. Why would anyone want to wer them then? It's like an ad for some candy bar showing someone eating one and then getting really sick.

[@richardtherichard26]

You: “he only had $30,000” *Me with only $30* : “ha what a SCHMUCK”

[@coughfee_beans]

Make this video as long as you want, I'm using ad block.

[@jakearmstrong6993]

What bothers me so much about how bad this ad is is that it’s totally fixable. Just hand the Kenyan runner the shoes while he’s still conscious, either via a running toss or by having the Hummer flag him down. Still not a particularly strong concept, but it keeps the “are they really hunting a guy?” bait and switch while removing most of the problematic ness. Hell, even just keeping the ad as is but giving him a happy reaction instead of the “big no” is still a substantial improvement (although that’d still have issues)

[@kevingreen2400]

That would have been too much like sense...

[@markintexas3030]

I mean, even if you can get past the racism and cultural insensitivity, the ad ends with the protagonist visually and verbally distressed that he’s now using the very product the commercial is advertising. And just in case you missed that, there’s the tag where he’s still clearly unhappy about wearing shoes, which, again, does not seem to be an ideal message for a shoe store to send. Also, I’m sure I’m not the only person who wonders why the runner didn’t just take the undesirable shoes off, another thing you don’t want people watching your shoe store ad to be thinking.

[@freeparking301]

Their domain name was feet.com. That sounds like a totally different type of website that doesn’t sell shoes.

[@stephengrinkley9889]

Giggity

[@RichV20]

The link goes to SEARS shoe department. Thats not a good omen for them.

[@l4x3rj]

Too long and too wrong. The ad did not tank just for feet. The company was committing accounting fraud and was in massive debt for years and the stock was already declining before the ad aired. They would have been gone when the scandal came to light and tanked the stock price with or without this ad.

[@richarddecredico6098]

And its not even the worst ad that has ever run on the Super Bowl.

[@Inbal_Feuchtwanger]

That sounds reasonable. When he was saying an Advertisement sunk a billion dollar company I found that pretty hard to believe, I just dont see where he was connecting the dots. LIke did everyone see the commercial and suddenly decide yep, thats enough that Im not shopping there anymore. Especially since he then casually mentions accounting fraud and said they filed chapter 11 that same year. Obviously they already had terrible financials at that point. I feel like he was trying to emulate youtube channels like "company man" here but kinda missed the mark, a 15 minute video from that channel manages to convey much more information while being more researched and accurate.

[@L_Train]

I remember getting a pair of shoes from just for feet. As a kid I thought it was a cool place. The building they built for it later became all sorts of things, from a foot locker to an old navy. Finally they tore it down and it's now a parking lot with a fast food restaurant in the corner.

[@richsheer4905]

Nice job researching all of these Super Bowl ad videos. I enjoy the background and the build-up to the ad itself.

[@virovac885]

The dumbest part is showing the product as something you wouldn't want. The hell?

[@luisreyes1963]

I wouldn't consider the ETrade baby ad a "classic". So glad they stopped making those shitty ads.

[@vern7424]

Wasn't a fan at first when they first aired during the 2008 Super Bowl. But they grew on me over time.

[@silverback7675]

Those ads were AWFUL

[@mrmonty86]

I only went to Just For Feet, a few times to play basketball.

[@MartelLamar]

Lol, been there!

[@flagcoco69]

I discovered your channel a few weeks ago and have been watching as many of your videos as time allows. They're all terrific. This one is the best. Partly because this one goes beyond football and into the economy. It talks about how big we the consumers have made the Super Bowl and how, for many in America, the commercials are almost as big as the game itself. It discusses how these commercials have become cultural icons. It explains how much companies are gambling on these ads and what a good ad can do for business. Mostly it's a great video because it details how a really bad ad can tank a company, even a company as hot as Just For Feet was. It makes the point that even the biggest marketing firms make horrible mistakes. It proves the American public is fickle and will easily turn on you if you make this unforgivable of a mistake. You always do a terrific job with detail and context in all of your videos. This one is the best, because yes, the detail and context and narrative are excellent, but in this one you're talking about all of us, how a single ad can affect society. Thank you for making this. I will try to share it every year before the Super Bowl when my friends start talking about the commercials, just to remind them that for every Apple 1984 or Mean Joe Greene ad, there's dozens of failures, and this one, indeed, was the worst.

[@TBevill1231]

Yoooooo!! That “On the Perimeter of Cortana Mall” got me! Wasn’t expecting a commercial from the Cortana Mall JFF. Dang that was so long ago!

[@joshuacataldo2612]

Does anyone know what style Reebok sneaker is at 4:55? White with grey highlights high top. Thank you.

[@ThatJingleJangleFeeling]

So much fluff and repetition just to hit that 15 minute mark.

[@TheCmvick]

how do I know this is the REAL JaguarGator9 and not just the OFFICIAL JaguarGator9

[@justinpettit8099]

Him: "Do you remember such and such commercials during Superbowl insert number" Me: No no I don't

[@Trafficcoordinator]

When you showed it I thought it was the kids getting pummeled with shoes. That was hilarious

[@Losevaiper]

This would have lost nothing as a 3 minute video

[@mayortarantino1095]

"Forgettable ads...theyre forgotten...nobody remembers them" holy shit you tried really hard to drag this out. Nice effort man but damn. Shorten it up

[@mercdragons]

This guy can make a 4 min video last 20 min

[@thecommish1976]

The Just For Feet was the worst one, but the one I remember most as being the worst was this one by Nissan in 2015. kzbin.info/www/bejne/kJbTiHR7bLyMd9k It features the song "Cat's In The Cradle" by Harry Chapin and a car accident. Harry Chapin died in a car accident when he was hit by a tractor trailer on the Long Island Expressway. Nissan never ran the ad again.

[@Riael]

This isn't about gilette? whaaa

[@artemorekhov8040]

The hunting bait and switch idea has already been done with Airwalk snowboarding boots literally years before this ad, and Just For Feet attempted to piggyback on its success.

[@mst3kanita]

I was hoping you had done a video on this! I'm currently writing about the company and I'm just fascinated by this stupid commercial.

[@CaugustusWhite]

Two minutes into the video and this guy still hasn’t gotten to the commercials.

[@justinpettit8099]

As someone who never watched SB ads I wouldn't have noticed if this ad was the worst lol

[@SteeleZack]

I assume that these are 90's US prices because $80 for a decent pair of brand-name shoes (Nike, Reebok et) seems reasonable now, those same pair would be more like $150 today, and closer to $200 in Canada.

[@Losevaiper]

Yes, inflation is a thing that exists

[@MartelLamar]

6:00 at the end of that ad, it shows the location being near a Tower Records and a Good Guys, both which also became defunct in the mid 2000s.

[@LlllIo]

Man, more excellent research by jaguargator. I can’t believe how this all went down, that may have been one of the quickest downfalls by any company ever. For something that wasn’t even their fault. Also I love the addition of music into the video!

[@naonakadai1612]

it should be noted that the ad was a factor in the company's fall and not the sole reason like the reddit title tries to imply.

[@Losevaiper]

Does "an outdated, struggling company also made a bad superbowl ad" sound like clickbait to you though? Gotta get those clicks somehow

[@normangarthharrison1865]

not just that, but the story is told entirely from a perspective sympathetic to the company. sure, saatchi should have been embarrassed for even pitching the ad, but companies kill ads all the time. and it's not like saatchi just filmed it while keeping the company in the dark. just for feet would have approved scripts, storyboards, casting, costumes, etc. it's a long process with a ton of checks, and the company can say, "no" at literally any stage to halt the process. absolving the company of any guilt in having a hand in the ad is just absurd.

[@richsheer4905]

Our entire society is built on assigning blame. It doesn’t matter who’s responsible; this ad clearly played a role in the company’s downfall.

[@mercdragons]

Everything is racist today so nothing is racist.

[@patrickracer43]

There's four tiers of Super Bowl ads: you got your great ads such as Coca-Cola Mean Joe Greene, Chrysler Imported from Detroit, and Budweiser Clydesdales, you got your good ads such as Nissan's with dad, you got your mid ads such as that Chevy ad with the guys who find out their friend didn't survive the apocalypse because he drove a Ford, and you got your bad ones

[@russellseilhamer4552]

We live in an era of political correctness and the SB is a family friendly forum. Some of the ads used to be interesting, most of them are dumb. You can’t afford to take risks with this time slot and perhaps offend a group of people so it basically leaves us with a lot of bland advertising. Bud Light had Spuds McKenzie, the Bud Bowl, the Frogs 🐸. All cool but eventually had to go away. I watch the game for the game, never cared about the hype, the TV doesn’t turn on until 6:18 when the game starts

[@0thasidevellz408]

@ The 85 South Comedy Show

[@stephaniegormley9982]

6:42 Isn't that David Harbour? (Stranger Things, Suicide Squad)

[@kevingreen2400]

Ruttenberg should have stood his ground about how bad the ad was.

[@MatthewDaSmitdog]

Well, he did sue the ad agency a couple of months after the commercial aired. He couldn't have been any more clear how much he despised it for how it was made and how it'd be looked at.

[@isaacbeastin1999]

Very interesting videos

[@RetroJR3379]

Superbowl 33 could've been Just For Feet coming out party but ended up killing them. It's sad cause it was a great store and had everything the one in Ontario (California not Canada) had a basketball court & Batting Cage

[@davidnelson6874]

It’s amazing how poor many of those ads are. And if they are so great, why don’t they show them for months on end?

[@rocknroll7316]

I loved just for feet it was one of the few places that I could find big size shoes.... it is sad that they are gone

[@newufl]

I don’t know the one car commercial that ended with finding out the kid died was real bad

[@francishollingshead2134]

I feel like the ad was intended as a parody of movies like "Black Hawk Down."

[@Thirdbase9]

I've not heard of this company.

[@michaelgreening9096]

Ask someone in Advertisement Marketing this is a great video!

[@thebullet7874]

What an atrocious advertisement. How could they not see how bad it was. Bag and tag the black man by 4 whites. Very racist. The owner of the business, who came from South Africa, should have known better too. Also, the NFL or the broadcaster’s should have never let it reach the airways.

[@illegalcricket]

Bro you gotta work on your annunciation. Your words are all slurred together. But this video was interesting I enjoyed it.

[@illegalcricket]

@Mister Paradise hahah

[@illegalcricket]

@Mister Paradise autocomplete, but I also couldn't tell the difference

[@anthonyfontanetta4966]

This video is egregiously & unnecessarily long.

[@urquimedes4459]

Gotta get that YT money. JaguarGator forced the length with unnecessary content.

[@richsheer4905]

Only if you have zero attention span. This entire video was fascinating.

[@FerdinandCesarano]

11:24 - The ad is terrible. But please note that the hunters did not shoot the runner; they drugged him.

[@BuccaneerBruce]

The Just For Feet stores were all in bad areas of the city here. I went to them a few times and the only people in there were kids playing basketball on the basketball court, not spending a dime.

[@jjmanzano9]

10:35 to skip the buildup

[@acelowe260]

Somebody has to get this footage to Karlous Miller! Lmao

[@mattcolver1]

Great video

[@davidnelson6874]

Never heard of Just For Feet. 🤔 Must not have made it to my part of Minnesota.

[@BeeHatGuy]

Is this a bluegrass version of "Stayin' Alive"?

[@randyjohnson8262]

What was wrong with it?

[@mayduck1]

I do not remember the ad because I fell asleep in a chair watching one of the dullest Super Bowl's ever but this ad is bad not only being racist but after they shot the Kenyan runner it look like the shoes he had on was shocking him and if shoes were causing his feet to shake like that I would never buy them. The ad would have been more successful had they just had the runner spike a football while running instead of this hot mess and it seems the same minds that thought of this disaster are doing most TV commercials today as most are very bad,

[@rocknroll7316]

Just like people remember the super bowl winner but not the loser

[@txaggievet]

Maybe Footlocker paid Sachi to make that Ad!

[@ProfessorGamez]

... and this occurred before the days of political correctness. Can one imagine what would happen if such an ad were even considered today?

[@oofoof12814]

My parents went to Super Bowl 33.

[@JeffCirillo]

Wow, I didn't realize we were pretending innocuous things were racist in the 1900's too. Shit don't change.

[@82dorrin]

These days, "allegations of racism" in advertising get taken about as seriously as "allegations of crayon stealing." But this is one of those cases where the allegations have definite weight.

[@EdwardJones1]

RCR guy?

[@ChaossX77]

I didn't see them shoot him. I saw him pass out from exhaustion. Regardless absolutely terrible.

[@WhatAG23]

Wow, and I thought the sales genie panda was bad

[@MrKenichi22]

@11:00, They Shot him? It looks more like they drugged the guy with a knockout drug… Really Bad Advertisement, I got nothing that the ad was about a shoe store…

[@someperson3883]

A Super Bowl commerical more deserving to be aired, than the losing tams a PewDiePie v T-Series ad in Super Bowl 53. Pretty fitting since the Saints would have won the game without the refs messing up.

[@smartacus1367]

Not everyone who watches the Super Bowl cares about Internet drama and that Super Bowl had decent commercials anyways

[@someperson3883]

@@smartacus1367 That was the only Super Bowl I didn’t watch

[@justinpettit8099]

@@smartacus1367 Not everyone who watches the Superbowl cares about ads at all lol. I wouldn't remember one commercial from any SB I've watched

[@smartacus1367]

@Justin Pettit I don’t remember many commercials either, except for the bad ones, like this one. I watch it for the game, but this game was over by halftime

[@joshtutor2526]

Isn't it the other way around in South Africa? 😏

[@mrmonty86]

After Super Bowl XXXIII, the first episode of Family Guy aired.

[@TheCrawdaddy029]

I don't get it, the only people that could afford to go to Just For Feet in 1999 were white or rappers or athletes. Rappers and athletes probably are not going to Just For Feet. So their target audience is still being reached.

[@jazzbo13]

11:08 My thoughts exactly.

[@justinpettit8099]

Smh I feel bad for Ruttenberg

[@dog61]

The ad is bad, for many, many reasons. But the idea that the ad sunk the company is click bait bs.

[@curtisdavis2157]

#AhSuchSweetMemories!

[@artemorekhov8040]

10:54 *dies of cringe*

[@ivanjimenez8868]

Hahahahaha I loved it

[@thelibyanplzcomeback]

The ad: 10:37

[@Badassinblack51]

If you played that commercial today, your bound to be canceled immediately. Lot of stuff you can’t get away with today comparing to back in the 90’s

[@__504__]

wtf is racist about it lmao

[@tf2andtalk897]

i liked the video and the backstory to the advertisement idk why people are bitching about it

[@Rountree1985]

billy bob because they’re racists and they’re mad

[@pastorofmuppets325]

I can understand the racist implications here... However, how does this video "Promote Drug Use"? 🤯 I don't see any "doping" in the video.. I'm confused! 🤷🏻‍♂️ The only thing I can think, is that maybe they think the shoes represent some type of Metaphor for P.E.D.s., BUT THAT IS SERIOUSLY PUSHING IT! 🙄

[@richsheer4905]

Exactly. The background and buildup is the best part. I’m learning about this stuff for the first time. If he just went straight to the ad, this would all be pointless.

[@mattrogers6649]

Probably for the same reason youtube comments from a few years ago contained comments about how Colin Kaepernick was legimately not good enough to play in the NFL.

[@tf2andtalk897]

@@mattrogers6649 whats that gotta do with anything? and he sucked; he got benched before the kneeling

[@ABC-yt1nq]

Skip to 10:35 for the actual 30 second ad

[@codylizzle]

You should’ve made the video longer. 15 minutes isn’t long enough.

[@josh39772]

Too damn long!

[@ZartmoBThoughtForms]

Get to it. Learn how to write and edit.

[@rocharox]

10:30. This video is way too long for fucking no reason

[@roymustang87]

cause you;re retarded and have the attention span of a gnat

[@nunya7319]

Well there's a new number one worst. The Jeep ad with that Amerika hating, has been bruce sprintsteen last night. Showing a map of the USSA and ReUnited on it. We were united. Not any longer. Shame on you Jeep. I hope your sales plummet because of this idiotic ad. Why would you promote Socialism ? Pray for our country. Things are about to get chaotic.

[@jamesage24]

China owns us/US. Becoming more clear everyday. 🇨🇳