Celebrated young actor Timothee Chalamet, fresh from the glow of his beloved New York Knicks taking home the NBA championship for the first time since 1973, is now the star in a series of avant-garde ads for Kalshi.
The ads consist of Chalamet in a dentist’s chair mumbling the word “Kalshi” through a dental dam; jumping to an absurd height to bang his head against the ceiling trying to get his upstairs neighbor to turn down music; and Chalamet playing — not exactly melodically — a keyboard in a music store.
None of the ads come anywhere close to mentioning anything such as “betting” or “trading,” but the backlash from fans and followers was swift and furious.
On Chalamet’s Instagram, where he posted the ads, many people were aghast at his decision to be a Kalshi pitchman.
“Bro sold his soul,” said JoyBoy in the comments section of Chalamet’s Instagram post.
“Children are becoming gambling addicts but yasss collect that coin I guess,” opined christianrbenedetti.
“come on bro anything but shilling these predatory prediction markets,” noted drownmetodeath.
The spots were directed by Academy Award-winning Swedish cinematographer Linus Sandgren, whose credits include Dune, La La Land, and Wuthering Heights.
The comments on YouTube were not any better.
“he betrayed us,” said declanpoll835.
“Bro said he wanted to be the best and then does a gambling ad,” noted earthboy2k.
Of course, Chalamet isn’t the first celebrity to lend their talents to gambling (or trading) operations.
Kevin Hart is a pitchman for DraftKings, Jamie Foxx has fronted BetMGM, Jon Hamm has appeared in BetMGM’s “Make It Legendary” campaign, and Vanessa Hudgens has also promoted BetMGM.
Other Hollywood names who have shown up in gambling ads or casino promotions in recent years include Neil Patrick Harris for Golden Nugget Online Casino, Ben Affleck for WynnBET, John Stamos for DraftKings Casino, Vince Vaughn for Caesars, and Colin Jost and Michael Che for DraftKings.
