Putney Swope is a 1969 American satirical comedy film written and directed by Robert Downey Sr., and starring Arnold Johnson as the title character, a black advertising executive.

Throughout the movie, a series of bizarre, surreal ads for breakfast cereal, air conditioners, skin cream, and airliners are shown, often featuring obscenity or nudity.

The success of the business draws attention from the United States government and the President (Pepi Hermine), who is in the pocket of the owner of the "Borman Six", an automobile company.

(as listed in the end credits by order of appearance) In a DVD interview, Downey claims that Johnson had great difficulty memorizing and giving his lines during filming.

The theatrical release poster showed a raised hand with the image of a girl replacing the out-thrust middle finger.

[7] The film holds a 69% "Fresh" score with an average rating of 5.7/10 on review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, based on of 16 critics.

The Beastie Boys song "Shadrach", from their 1989 album Paul's Boutique, mentions the film in the lyric "Music for all and not just one people, and now we're gonna bust with the Putney Swope sequel".

Film dialogue is sampled on De La Soul's 1989 song "The Magic Number", as well as The Avalanches' 2016 album Wildflower.