Larry David sued for crypto ad in which he talked crap about crypto, which feels about right
David is being sued for being a "brand ambassador" for flailing cryptocurrency exchange FTX
Natural entertainment partners Larry David, Tom Brady, and Shaq are collaborating at last—in a lawsuit, as Variety reports that all three famous guys, plus a number of other big-name folks, are being sued as part of a class-action suit against collapsing cryptocurrency exchange FTX. Specifically, they’ve been named as “brand ambassadors” in a suit from an Oklahoma man accusing the crypto exchange of employing celebrities to target “unsophisticated investors” in a “Ponzi scheme” in an effort to keep the exchange alive.
FTX itself, as well as former CEO Sam Bankman-Fried, are both also named in the lawsuit, put forward by a man named Edwin Garrison, who says he was tricked into buying an FTX account, and who says that he hopes to represent “thousands, if not millions, of consumers nationwide” who were allegedly bilked by the company. Other celebrities targeted in the suit include Giselle Bündchen (who appeared with husband Brady in their “You’re In” ad), as well as Stephen Curry and his NBA team the Golden State Warriors, who loudly advertised FTX during their most recent season.
David’s participation in all this seems especially on-brand: Appearing in a Super Bowl ad (during this year’s crypto-heavy Super Bowl) in which the major appeal was him loudly declaring that crypto wouldn’t work, and wasn’t worth investing in. (This, after a long series of historical sketches of Larry David being wrong about technical innovations throughout history, mostly notable for featuring a lot of Larry David-type “acting.”) The upshot of this is that he’s being sued for promoting FTX in an ad where he doesn’t say a single nice thing about FTX, which feels like a pretty good encapsulation of the entire Larry David vibe.
FTX is currently in the sort of freefall that causes you to have separate sections for “Crisis begins,” “worsening crisis,” and “widening impact” on your Wikipedia page; the company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on November 11, and is reportedly being investigated by both the SEC and the Justice Department.