With Kanye West set to headline Wireless Festival, sponsors are now fleeing

In January, West took out a full-page ad in The Wall Street Journal, issuing a blanket apology for his actions and blaming his neurological issues on the same 2002 car crash that inspired his debut single, “Through the Wire.” “I lost touch with reality,” West wrote. “I love Jewish people.” The claims come in stark contrast to his conduct a year prior, when West tweeted “IM A NAZI” to his 30 million followers. He also noted that he found solace in Reddit forums during his healing journey. Since the ad’s publication, West has been cautiously re-emerging into a music community that once hailed him as this century’s greatest rap talent. Last week he released BULLY, an 18-track album meant to coax longtime listeners back out of the woodwork, and performed two sold-out shows at SoFi Stadium in LA.

West’s global rehabilitation, however, is less than a given: Pepsi’s and Diageo ditching Wireless Festival also inspired fintech company PayPal to pull its inclusion in any promotional branding for the festival. Brands like Adidas, Balenciaga, CAA, and Gap cut off connections with West in 2022 for one of his earlier barrages of antisemitism. London mayor Sadiq Khan called West’s prior actions “offensive and wrong” in a statement last week, remarking that the rapper’s views are “simply not reflective of London’s values.” Jewish groups in the city have pleaded for West’s removal from his headliner post, with some requesting he be banned from the UK entirely. The move is not without precedent: in July 2025, Australian officials banned West from entering the country after the release of “Heil Hitler,” concluding that the artist was not “conducive to the public good.”