Franco's Trying To Distract Us With An Ad

James Franco has been the news recently for trying to pick up a 17-year-old on Instagram. While he admitted to it, some people still think that this was a hoax to promote his upcoming film Palo Atlo which happens to be about a teacher who dates an underage student. I'm putting this out there front and center because, to use Franco's words, "I was feeling awkward" and didn't want to go into this article and "just feel awkward... I guess I'm just a model" for how writing about celebrities who have recently made questionable choices is "tricky." Whew! I feel better now, so let's get to the real deal. James Franco starred in and directed a Gucci ad titled Techno Colored Sunglasses and it's still not enough to make you forget he tried to pick up a 17-year-old on Instagram.

But hey, maybe this is what he was really promoting with the possible hoax. In the ad, Franco plays a man wearing sunglasses who stares at and follows a woman wearing sunglasses. The woman also inexplicably swims underwater with the sunglasses on because... Yay! Sunglasses! The two end up driving off together in a car and making out while standing on a billboard. But how did they find each other in the first place? Instagram direct messaging? That's would make sense. See, this could have been the point of the hoax all along! I can't believe people thought it could be for a movie about a 30-something man dating a teenager.

Ready to feel confused/angry at/disappointed in James Franco all over again AND consider a new sunglasses purchase? Check out the ad for yourself: