Melania director Brett Ratner was behind the fat-shaming MAHA Super Bowl halftime ad featuring Mike Tyson.
The preachy commercial featured boxer Tyson talking about his personal experience with weight loss, claiming that obesity claimed the life of his sister at 25 and pushing the message that “processed food kills.”
Ratner also directed the first lady’s widely panned Amazon MGM vanity documentary about the days before President Donald Trump returned to the White House.
The Rush Hour director has been largely excommunicated from Hollywood following a series of allegations of sexual assault and sexual misconduct. He is also pictured in the Epstein files multiple times, snapped alongside the convicted child sex offender and two other people with their identities redacted.
Ratner has denied the allegations against him and has now found a way back into the movie business through the MAGA movement. It has welcomed him with open arms, handing him the keys to the $75 million Melania project, which tanked at the box office, grossing just $7.1 million in North America in its opening weekend, Forbes reports, and at the time of writing has an IMDb rating of 1.3 out of 10.
Ratner confirmed his role in the ad, sharing an article from the right-wing outlet Breitbart on X that said he had directed it.
The Super Bowl commercial was paid for by the MAHA Center, The New York Times reports, a new nonprofit aligned with the Make America Healthy Again Movement, which is led by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
The ad features Tyson’s face up close as he speaks about his sister Denise, who died in 1990 of a heart attack that he claims was caused by “obesity.”
“I was so fat and nasty I would eat anything,” Tyson says in the ad. “I was like 345 pounds; [I would eat] a quart of ice cream every hour,” leading to what he calls “self-hate.”
“We’re the most powerful country in the world, and we have the most obese, fudgy people,” he says. He then bites into an apple. “Something has to be done about processed food in this country.”
MAHA Center boss Tony Lyons, an ally of Kennedy, told the Times that the commercial had been paid for with help from billionaires whom he refused to name.
“We made the argument that this was a historical turning point that they should want to be part of,” he said.
Meanwhile, it was “the most important message in Super Bowl history,” as far as Kennedy was concerned.
In a social media post, Ratner applauded “friend of 40 years” Tyson, saying he was “so proud of Mike for sharing his personal story with the world and delivering the most important message in Super Bowl history.”
He added: “Gratitude to @SecKennedy for prioritizing our country’s disease epidemic and how real food is a big part of the solution. Our nation’s health is our real wealth.”
Speaking to Fox News about his relationship with disgraced financier Epstein, Ratner said, “About 20 years ago, I had a girlfriend. I was in love with her. We were engaged. She was my fiancée.
“We went to an event, and we were sitting on the couch, and the photo was taken at that event. I didn’t have a personal relationship with him. I didn’t know him.”
The Daily Beast has contacted representatives for both Tyson and Ratner for comment.
