Jenny McCarthy, the former Playboy bunny, will be in Blu e-cigarette’s newest commercial, in which she says the cigarettes restored confidence in her dating lifeMatt Sayles/The Associated Press
Oh Jenny McCarthy.
Controversy seems to follow this woman no matter where she goes.
Less than a month after it was announced she would join The View (and people were angered, fearing she would spew her unfounded health concerns on the show), she's been deemed as another health risk, this time for endorsing controversial e-cigarettes.
Starting Aug. 5, the former Playboy bunny will be in Blu e-cigarette's newest commercial, in which she says the cigarettes restored confidence in her dating life.
"When it comes to smoking, smelling like an ashtray is not the ideal aphrodisiac," she says in the commercial.
I'm not going to lie – it's a weird commercial. The extended version is a brutally long two minutes and 30 seconds. McCarthy uses phrases such as, "It's like the smartphone of e-cigs" as she twirls a charger cord around and gives the camera seductive looks.
And then there's that whole thing about e-cigarettes actually having a negative effect on your body, which of course she doesn't mention.
"As a smoker who is single, I was instantly drawn to e-cigarettes as a smoking alternative to better suit my activities on-set and my lifestyle off-set," a news release quotes McCarthy as saying.
But we shouldn't really be surprised by all of this – McCarthy has a history of having unpopular views when it comes to health.
The negative reaction which followed the announcement that she would be replacing Elizabeth Hasselbeck on The View had mainly to do with an opinion she's long held that vaccinations cause autism, a fact that has never been founded.
She's also been adamant that chelation therapy, the act of injecting a chemical that binds metals into an autistic child to draw the metals out, is how she cured her son of autism, which is another unfounded fact.
Being blunt and straightforward has been her key trait over the years and it has helped her stand out. But the realistic fear is that, by giving her a national audience, she'll say things that could be harmful.
McCarthy has a long history of controversy – from her stance on relationships, her reason for appearing on the cover of Playboy (because her son's tuition "was really expensive this year") to details about her libido.
E-cigarettes aren't sexy, even though she's holding one in her hand, and frankly, it's surprising Blu would ask McCarthy, given her painful history with anything health-related.
There's actually a good chance she will do more harm than good for the brand.
I'm just waiting for the day Blu comes forward and says they regret this decision.
It won't come a moment too soon.