Terry Alan Crew, born July 30, 1968, is a former American football linebacker, actor, and television personality. From 2005 through 2009, he starred as Julius Rock in the UPN/CW sitcom. Everybody Hates Chris and Terry Jeffords in the Fox and NBC sitcom Brooklyn Nine-Nine. Terry Crews, star of “Brooklyn Nine-Nine,” is being chastised for his appearance in a new Amazon commercial. Crews released the commercial to his TikTok account on Tuesday, and the video shows him touring an Amazon warehouse, doing various chores, and conversing with a few employees. Terry Crews is getting criticism for his role as an Amazon warehouse worker in the company’s new TikTok campaign.
Who is Terry Crews?
Crews played defensive end and linebacker for the Los Angeles Rams, San Diego Chargers, and Washington Redskins in the NFL and for the Rhein Fire in the World League of American Football (WLAF) and Western Michigan University in college football. Crews, a prominent champion for women’s rights and anti-sexism crusader, has exposed accounts of his family’s abuse at the hands of his violent father. He was also selected Time Person of the Year in 2017 for coming public with allegations of sexual assault. His mother primarily reared him as the middle child of three in a conservative Christian family in Flint.
Terry Crews career:
Crews relocated to Los Angeles after retiring from the NFL in 1997 to pursue an acting career. He had a long-held desire to work in the film business but had no intentions to pursue acting at the time, preferring to be connected in some capacity. He co-wrote and co-produced Young Boys Incorporated’s indie feature picture a year before. The film, a self-financed movie shot in Detroit with an anti-drug message, was based on his personal views and those of his friends and family. Despite calling it a “terrible” picture, he attributes his interest in the film industry to the experience. Crews tried out for a job as a character athlete on the syndicated game show Battle Dome in 1999.
Terry Crews’ personal life:
Crews is an ardent Christian. He met Rebecca King as a sophomore in college; she was the music pastor at a nearby church. In July 1989, they married. They have four daughters, a son, actor Isaiah Crews, and one grandson. Crews published his autobiography, Manhood: How to Be a Better Man or Just Live with One, in 2014. Crews addressed his long-standing pornography addiction in the book, which had severely harmed his wife and life but which he overcame in 2009 and 2010 after attending recovery. Since then, he has been an outspoken advocate for the disease and its consequences, including Facebook posts in his Dirty Little Secret Series.
The issue of Amazon Warehouse:
Amazon has been chastised on several occasions for its treatment of employees, ranging from underpayment to brutal working hours. Tara Jones, an Amazon warehouse worker in Oklahoma, sought the assistance of founder Jeff Bezos only in October. Despite reporting the problem, she was underpaid numerous times, and she emailed Bezos, saying, “I’m weeping as I type this email.” According to the New York Times, an internal probe revealed that Jones was not alone. So, when Terry Crews of Brooklyn 99 fame, renowned for his provocative views, stars in a commercial in which he dresses up as an Amazon warehouse worker and gleefully muses on the benefits of working there, portraying an image far from reality.
The peppy ads of Terry Crews:
The cheery commercial depicts Crews working with others to a happy soundtrack at an Amazon warehouse. “So, Amazon pays for tuition?” he asks at one point while sitting next to a specially-abled individual during what looks to be a meal break. Crews encourage applications by highlighting “benefits, tuition, and flexible hours” as benefits of working at Amazon. “Terry Crews likely made more money LARPing as an Amazon employee for 30 seconds than any of the genuine warehouse workers will make in a whole year,” a Twitter user commented, and they were among hundreds who felt the same way. He lifts boxes, shrink-wraps a pallet of packed items, and extols the virtues of Amazon warehouse jobs.
The comments area of Crews’ video, which is still up on TikTok, has been swamped with remarks showing Amazon’s history of mistreating its employees. They cited Amazon workers being forced to work long hours without breaks (some drivers were forced to urinate in bottles), how they’re monitored and penalized when they stop working long enough to speak with their bosses, the high turnover rate, and poor compensation, all of which have been well documented. Some TikTokers instantly pointed out how Crews’ behavior in the video resulted in his employment being terminated. Crews were chastised on Twitter for his accessory selections and the numerous advantages he most certainly had in creating the ad.
