Did You (Not) Invest Like Larry David?
Larry David is being sued along with other actors, for appearing in FTX ads. The premise of the legal argument is that these actors had an opportunity to do due diligence on their contract employer (FTX) and by marketing the company they induced investors.
That is actually a valid argument, even if it has very little precedent. In fact, it would be amazing of actors became more scrutinizing of their roles in general, especially in advertising. There are plenty of other fake companies or frauds that have been supported by celebrity endorsement – Scientology I’m looking at you. But generally speaking, those people spoke positively of that product, service, or company. But not Larry David.
While some articles have taken the angle suggesting that Larry David “predicted” the collapse of FTX in his ad, that’s just for laughs. He didn’t even write the lines, some ad agency did. You can’t even say that ad agency predicted anything. All they did was cast a person who was seen as an individual that people would not listen to. However in this weird world of casting blame on somebody for promoting FTX, it is hard to suggest that Larry David should be blamed. His character negged the idea entirely.
Larry David…’s Character Did Not Invest In FTX
Yes, his character was also seen through history negging other things like the wheel or whatever. But with respect to FTX, and cryptocurrencies in general, Larry David just said no.
In fact, his version of the FTX ad was all about not doing what Larry David does – which is not invest in FTX. He claims he’s never wrong as if that kind of claim is ever to be taken seriously. Again, though, the premise of the ad is that Larry David doesn’t know what he’s talking about. So you shouldn’t be taking what he’s saying seriously in any way whatsoever. That should be enough for him to be alleviated of certain aspects of blame here. There’s no way to discern intent from the actor, either.
Perhaps Larry David secretly got paid in stock of FTX. I have no idea. If that’s the case, then please disregard this entire post and upon that kind of revelation I’d change my tune entirely. Because owning stock suggests that the actor truly believed their involvement was going to improve the quality of the company. In the case of Larry David, if he got paid in stock, his performance was not intended to dissuade, but rather, to persuade people to buy-in one way or another.
If Larry David Did Nothing Wrong, He’s Just Deep Pockets To Blame
If, however, Larry David did not receive stock options from FTX, he was just an actor doing a job. In the case that actors doing their job need to be responsible for how they portray their belief in something, I think Larry David appropriately demonstrated his disbelief in the product. So anybody suing Larry David decidedly was not listening to Larry David. They perhaps took advice from Tom Brady or some other celebrity who outwardly endorsed the company FTX, or Samuel Bankman-Fried himself.
But as for Larry David, who could really blame him for literally saying no, and getting paid to do it?
