Back to the archive

The encyclopedia · Advertising & PR · Marketing decision · 2024–2025

One SNS post cost Fuwachan her Google Pixel commercial

A social-media post aimed at a fellow comedian cost Fuwachan her Google Pixel campaign and her radio show within days.

Google · Nippon Broadcasting · Fuwachan · 2024-08-09

What happened

Fuwachan rose from YouTube to television as a loud, unapologetic personality. In April 2024 Google Japan made her the face of its Pixel smartphone campaign — a bet that her energy would sell phones to young viewers.

In early August 2024 a social-media post Fuwachan directed at a fellow entertainer drew immediate backlash. Nippon Broadcasting suspended her late-night radio show ANN0 the same week, and Google made its Pixel commercial featuring her unavailable. On August 9 the station confirmed she was dropped from the show.

She announced a hiatus in mid-August. One year and two months later, in November 2025, she reappeared — at a professional wrestling event, saying she would return only as a wrestler. Sports newspapers reported that television networks had no plans to bring her back.

Why it happened

  • Google's Pixel campaign bet on Fuwachan's rule-breaking persona; the same bluntness produced the controversy that killed the campaign.
  • The radio suspension came within days and the Google pull within the week — SNS-era advertisers react faster than contracts can be reviewed.
  • Her own platform was the risk: as an influencer-turned-celebrity, her audience reached her directly, and the post was preserved and circulated as evidence.
  • The hiatus she announced turned a PR crisis into a year-long absence, which is what made the comeback so hard.
What it costGoogle pulled her Pixel CM; radio cancelled; work stoppedembarrassing

The lesson

One SNS post outranks every commercial ever filmed: Google ended the Pixel campaign the week it surfaced, and no brand waits for the apology. For an influencer, the platform that made you can end you.

Aftermath

Google made Fuwachan's Pixel commercial unavailable within days of the post; Nippon Broadcasting suspended the ANN0 show and confirmed her departure on August 9, 2024. She announced a hiatus that lasted more than a year. When she reappeared in November 2025 it was as a professional wrestler, and sports newspapers reported that television had no plans to rehire her. A campaign that had run since April 2024 was gone in a week.

Sources

spotted an error? The club wants to know.

Comments · 0

    Sign in to join the comments.

    More like this

    Somewhere, someone solved the problem this company failed at. 2nd Opinion →