The Grunt's Unreleased Super Bowl Advertisement — Police officer in riot gear facing protesters at night in a still from the Grunt Style ad

The Grunt's Unreleased Super Bowl Advertisement

2018viral videodeclining

Published November 14, 2026

The Grunt's Unreleased Super Bowl Advertisement is a 2018 spot by apparel brand Grunt Style that the company marketed as a canceled Super Bowl LII buy, showing a riot cop flashing back to 9/11, football and military service before clubbing a crowd of protesters. By September 2019, Rudy Giuliani had turned the clip into a Twitter debate by posting it on the 9/11 anniversary with the caption 'GOD BLESS AMERICA!'

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Overview

Grunt Style, started by a former Army drill sergeant2, uploaded the roughly one minute video as 'This Commercial Would Have Changed the Game' and tagged it with the company's 'This We'll Defend' slogan1. Inside the cut, a lone officer stares down demonstrators carrying anarchist signs while flashbacks show a boy watching firefighters raise a flag at Ground Zero, a flag draped coffin going past him, and a high school football field2. He snaps down a clear face shield, draws a baton, and the crowd jumps the barricade just as the slogan appears on screen4.

Grunt Style's own pitch is part of the story. In the YouTube description, the brand said it chose to walk away from the Super Bowl slot rather than spend the money, a line that gave the ad a 'banned' mystique as it moved around social media1. NBC News reporter Ben Collins later noted that the viral version had cropped the brand's shirt logo off the end, so many sharers did not realize they were watching a commercial4.

Origin & Background

Platform
YouTube (origin) / Twitter (viral spread)
Creator
Grunt Style
Date
2018

On February 16, 2018, clothing brand Grunt Style posted the video to YouTube under the title 'This Commercial Would Have Changed the Game'1. The description stated that the company had planned it for Super Bowl LII but opted out for cost reasons, writing that 'we weren't denied or rejected by anyone, it was our own decision to not run it'2. Within two years the upload passed 3.6 million views5.

How It Spread

Reddit arguments started early. Users in r/COMPLETEANARCHY and r/ABoringDystopia called the clip 'literal fascist propaganda' and a 'fantasy being sold to right-wing america,' while r/ProtectAndServe gave the same video an 85 percent upvote rate on a thread that passed 159 points5.

On September 11, 2019, Rudy Giuliani, then New York City's former mayor and Donald Trump's personal attorney, tweeted the clip with the caption 'GOD BLESS AMERICA!'8. The post picked up more than 12,000 likes and 4,300 retweets inside a day5. Twitter user @nycsouthpaw replied that the tweet 'honors the Republican tradition of using the memory of 9/11 to attack people who had absolutely nothing to do with it, and it's incredibly fascist to boot,' a response that itself drew 3,900 likes6.

Coverage followed from The Daily Beast, which identified the source as a Grunt Style spot2, along with The Independent3, Business Insider7 and Splinter News9. The New Civil Rights Movement quoted Ben Collins noting that the clip 'skirted the rules and got conservative media attention' by cropping the company logo off the final frame4.

Timeline

2018-02-04

Super Bowl LII played in Minneapolis without the Grunt Style ad on the broadcast.

2018-02-16

Grunt Style uploaded 'This Commercial Would Have Changed the Game' to YouTube, framing it as a canceled Super Bowl buy.

2019-09-11

Rudy Giuliani tweeted the clip on the 9/11 anniversary with the caption 'GOD BLESS AMERICA!', drawing 12,000+ likes within a day.

2019-09-11

Twitter user @nycsouthpaw replied calling the Giuliani post 'incredibly fascist,' racking 3,900+ likes.

2019-09-11

The Daily Beast and The New Civil Rights Movement published stories tracing the clip back to Grunt Style, with NBC News' Ben Collins noting the logo had been cropped off.

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