Brooklyn Beckham Stirs the Pot

Remember back in January, when Brooklyn Beckham posted a six-slide Instagram story explaining his side of the Beckham family feud? Besides the meme-inducing claim that his mom, Victoria Beckham, “danced very inappropriately on me” and ruined his and Nicola Peltz’s first dance at their wedding, the main takeaway was that he’d felt pressured to perform his part as a public Beckham and contribute to the family coffers: “My family values public promotion and endorsements above all else. Brand Beckham comes first,” he wrote. 

Of all his gripes, this seemed like the most legitimate—his parents famously sold the first photos of him to a magazine, after all. (But then again, that was at the height of late 1990s paparazzi culture, when his dad, David Beckham, was the most famous soccer player in the world, and his mom was a Spice Girl; there’s a decent argument to be made that they were doing what they could to placate the infamously voracious British tabloid appetite on their own terms.)

Anyway, if he had then faded into the lush background of the rich and famous, I’d get it; I feel very confident saying he and Peltz could comfortably live off whatever her monthly trust fund allowance is. (Her father, Nelson Peltz, is worth $1.5 billion.) But last week, Brooklyn appeared in a DoorDash ad, the theme of which is basically: “Hey, I’m a Beckham, so I’ve got sick World Cup tickets, but I can’t go to the games out of fear of seeing Mummy and Daddy. So I’m putting them in a DoorDash bag and they’re giving them away.” (The caption directs you to follow the DoorDash Instagram account to look for “clues” of where to find his tickets. If someone does this and actually gets Brooklyn’s box seats at the semifinals or whatever, please report back.)

A source told Page Six that Brooklyn got paid $1 million for the 30-second ad, which is an insane amount of money for something that looks like it took two hours to shoot and employed neither a make-up artist nor a stylist. (I’d say he looks hungover, but I don’t think the Gen Z celebs drink anymore.) This also, of course, raises some major questions about the pot calling the kettle black: As a different source (presumably), told Page Six: “To do an ad based on estrangement from family as if it’s a joke, when his family is devastated and his sister and grandparents are inconsolable, is terrible…”

Now I’m not sure I’d go so far as to say “terrible,” but I would say “ill advised” and “in bad taste.” No one in the world is a die-hard Brooklyn Beckham fan, but there are a number of die-hard Posh and Becks fans, so whatever publicity battle he thinks he’s playing, there’s just no way Beckham the younger is going to win.

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