Daymond John Explains How LL Cool J Secretly Made a FUBU Commercial Out of a GAP Ad and Created Massive Sales Numbers for Both Companies
FUBU was trending on social media today. Why? Well, that story actually begins in 1997 with LL Cool J and his commercial for Gap. Earlier today, Matthew A. Cherry posted the 30-second adon his Twitter account, saying, “LL will still forever be the 🐐 for wearing a Fubu hat while literally doing a commercial for The Gap.”
LL will still forever be the 🐐 for wearing a Fubu hat while literally doing a commercial for The Gap. https://t.co/YL3BAtcbHk pic.twitter.com/z9ABPxPcAq
— Matthew A. Cherry (@MatthewACherry) December 4, 2020
Daymond John noticed the video and replied, “Who’s heard me tell this story before? If not, should I do a storytime?”
He then went on to explain how LL Cool J’s hat flew under the radar while he was filming the commercial.“They don’t care that he can wear a FUBU hat — they don’t even know what FUBU is,” John says. “All of a sudden he slips ‘For Us By Us’ [FUBU] in the commercial.” But when the ad launched, FUBU had a difficult time creating enough supply for the vast demand, so customers looking for its products turned to the Gap. “Gap finds out almost three weeks later,” John says, “after the commercial is airing — they spent almost $30 million on this commercial. They pull the commercial. But then all of a sudden they find out that the target market they were trying to hit increased 300% because the kids thought they could get FUBU at the Gap. Gap blows up, FUBU blows up, LL Cool J … remains the superstar who slipped FUBU in the Gap commercial.
“Forget about the Starbucks cup in Game of Thrones,” John finishes. “This was probably history’s biggest advertising coup.”
Watch the full video below.
The story behind the LL Cool J Gap commercial. #FUBU baby! pic.twitter.com/jIW8ECnXD9
— Daymond John (@TheSharkDaymond) December 4, 2020
