Elton John Out-Triangles Jack Harlow in Doritos Super Bowl Ad
Elton John might be winding down his touring career, but he’s still got enough fire in him to upstage rapper Jack Harlow for “Triangle Player of the Year” in a new Doritos Super Bowl commercial, which you can watch below. The 90-second spot begins with Harlow in the studio, listening disappointedly to a generic hip-hop beat and deciding he “need[s] to try something new.”
After noticing that a Dorito looks remarkably similar to the triangle hanging in the corner of the room, Harlow decides to abandon hip-hop altogether and try another angle, despite the protests of Rock & Roll Hall of Fame nominee Missy Elliott. “You’re gonna quit rap for a triangle?” she asks him in disbelief, to which Harlow replies, “I gotta do me, Missy.”
Harlow’s career pivot sets off a nationwide triangle craze, winning the praise of radio personality Sway Calloway and causing the instrument to fly off shelves. (They still have plenty of cowbells, though!) The “First Class” star gets a Triangle cologne line, and the instrument even replaces the British pound.
The rapper-turned-triangle player is on top of the world — which makes his upset defeat at the hands of John all the more devastating.
John, who’s in the midst of his record-breaking Farewell Yellow Brick Road Tour, might not have much in common musically with the 24-year-old Harlow, but they do share at least one mutual connection: pop star Dua Lipa, who guested on John’s “Cold Heart (Pnau Remix)” and is now reportedly dating Harlow. The rapper helped speak the relationship into existence with his aspirational 2022 song “Dua Lipa.”
“Cold Heart (Pnau Remix)” mashes up four John songs — 1989’s “Sacrifice,” 1972’s “Rocket Man,” 1983’s “Kiss the Bride” and 1976’s “Where’s the Shoorah?” — and topped the U.K. singles chart. "She’s given me so much energy," John said of Lipa at the time of its release. "She’s a truly wonderful artist, and person, absolutely bursting with creativity and ideas."