Clint Dempsey's latest ad went viral, but not in the way it was intended

Twitter can be brutal. We know this. You know this. If he didn’t know it before, Clint Dempsey now knows it, too, after he Tweeted out this:

Just because he might be the most accomplished American soccer player in history, the Internet did not hold back in their criticisms of the ad.

There were, of course, some of his former teammates ribbing him over his breath:

Some puns:

Some who just seem confused:

Some pointing out the shamelessness of it:

Some were just being mean:

Naturally, the best responses came from our very own LikkitP:

In the Sounder at Heart Slack room (where the magic happens), there were those of us who thought maybe, just maybe, he was having a play on the good Dempsey/bad Dempsey meme. Here’s what MLS Watercolorist offered:

Clint: smile and they'll give you money. Also Clint: I demand 3 razors to shave with, no more no less

There was also the theory that he was probably supposed to send this out during the World Cup qualifiers, opened his email today and was reminded he needed to send this out.

Either way, you almost have to be impressed at his willingness to do a spot like this. He doesn’t need that Listerine money. At least not today, he doesn’t. But Dempsey keeps doing ads like this — or others for beef jerky — and doesn’t seem fazed in the least.

This one is a bit different, though, in that this is just not a look we often see from him. When’s the last time you saw Dempsey smile like this? Has he ever? He must have dug deep to find the kind of joy that elicited that grin. Maybe he was thinking about one of the eight goals he’s scored against the Timbers! Maybe that’s why this came out today!