Super Bowl commercials are supposed to bring people together. Leave it to 50 Cent to use the most expensive ad slot on television to do the exact opposite—with surgical precision. During his DoorDash Super Bowl spot, the rapper turned 30 seconds of brand messaging into a masterclass in weaponized subtlety, slipping a decade-long feud into America’s living rooms without ever raising his voice.
The campaign, dubbed “The Big Beef,” aired to an audience of more than 112 million viewers and featured 50 Cent casually strolling through a grocery store packed with intentionally absurd “mock products.” At first glance, it played like self-aware comedy. On closer inspection, it was a meticulously layered diss aimed squarely at Sean Combs—and fans clocked it instantly.
The moment that broke the internet came midway through the ad. As 50 Cent unpacks items from a DoorDash bag, he pulls out a pack of plastic hair combs, pauses, and deadpans: “They sell combs… what a coincidence.” He tosses them aside with a smirk. No explanation. No follow-up. None needed.
The jab lands because it’s linguistic, not lyrical. Combs. Combs. Coincidence. In one throwaway line, 50 Cent reduced a billionaire mogul’s surname into a punchline broadcast during the most watched TV event of the year. The restraint made it louder.
But the combs weren’t acting alone. Sharp-eyed viewers spotted multiple Easter eggs scattered throughout the commercial. A bag of cheese puffs appeared briefly—an unmistakable nod to Combs’ former moniker, Puff Daddy. “Don’t want to be too obvious,” 50 mutters, while being exactly that. In another scene, he’s surrounded by an absurd number of identical bottles—widely interpreted as a visual callback to reports from 2024 involving thousands of bottles seized during federal raids tied to Combs’ properties. The ad never says it. It doesn’t have to.
Even the timing was deliberate. At one point, 50 Cent pulls a clock from the bag and remarks that he’s “always on time,” a layered callback not only to punctuality—but to rivalries past and present. The result is a commercial that rewards cultural literacy. If you know, you know.
The feud between 50 Cent and Diddy stretches back over two decades, rooted in industry politics, loyalty disputes, and public antagonism that has only intensified in recent years. Unlike traditional diss tracks, this one arrived wrapped in brand-safe humor and corporate polish—proof that modern beef doesn’t need a beat drop to go viral.
For DoorDash, the move was calculated brilliance. By leaning into 50 Cent’s reputation as hip-hop’s most relentless troll, the brand guaranteed the ad wouldn’t just air—it would be dissected. Every frame became a Reddit thread. Every prop, a headline.
And for 50 Cent, it was business as usual. No shouting. No threats. Just a grocery item, a raised eyebrow, and a line that turned a global ad buy into a cultural moment.
“They sell combs?”
Yeah. And apparently, they sell receipts too.