Media Monster

Too Cheeky? Serena Williams’ Video Game Commercial Won’t Wind Up On TV

Serena Williams might not be able to play tennis until summer, but that doesn’t mean she can’t throw on a cheeky leotard and some lace-up thigh-highs, and pretend to play fake tennis in video game commercial.

Williams—dubbed “the world’s sexiest tennis player”—is pinned against actress Rileah Vanderbilt—”the world’s sexiest gamer”—in a flesh-heavy, moan-filled ad for Top Spin 4, which will forever live out its life on the internet. According to Huffington Post, Top Spin 4 developer 2K Sports yanked the ad from TV for being to racy.

But perhaps it was never meant to be on TV. The official statement of 2K Sports reads:

“As part of the process for creating marketing campaigns to support our titles, we pursue a variety of creative avenues. This video is not part of the title’s final marketing campaign and its distribution was unauthorized.”

While Vanderbilt reportedly first tipped people off to the commercial’s existence via Twitter, Williams later uploaded it to her YouTube channel, and 2K Sports doesn’t seem to be doing too much complaining about that. In a comprehensive piece about the commercial, Deadspin suggested the controversy was created intentionally in order to get people talking, and we don’t disagree.

The ad may never air on television, but 2K Sports will save big money on having to pay fees for air time while getting free advertising from media outlets (like us) discussing the commercial and all the controversy surrounding it. So congrats, 2K Sports: you successfully got a large group of men paying attention to your women’s tennis video game.