Cryptocurrency firms are set to stay on the sidelines of this year’s Super Bowl — a year after the big game dominated the advertising space — as the industry rebounds in the wake of the FTX collapse.
Super Bowl commercials are some of the most expensive airtime on TV, costing as much as $7 million for a 30-second ad. Last year’s Super Bowl saw many of the crypto sector’s biggest firms run ads during the game, which prompted some marketing experts to dub it the “Crypto Bowl”.
According to Mark Evans, executive vice president of advertising sales for Fox Sports, this year’s Super Bowl will serve as a stark contrast to the “zero representation” of crypto companies. The turnaround is somewhat reminiscent of the 2000 Super Bowl, when many dot-com companies ran ads but went broke within a year or two of hitting national headlines.
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Cryptocurrency firms are set to stay on the sidelines of this year’s Super Bowl — a year after the big game dominated the advertising space — as the industry rebounds in the wake of the FTX collapse.
Crypto exchange FTX was one of the biggest advertisers at last year’s Super Bowl and ran an ad with celebrity comedian Larry David from HBO’s “Curb Your Enthusiasm”.
In FTX’s Super Bowl commercial, David portrayed characters skeptical of a range of inventions, from wheels and indoor toilets to the light bulb and the Walkman.
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It described FTX as a “safe and easy way to get into crypto” and told viewers, “Don’t be like Larry, the next big thing in crypto, don’t miss out on NFTs.” David’s character concluded, “Eh, I don’t think so, and I’m never wrong about this stuff, never.”
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Crypto exchange FTX was one of the biggest advertisers at last year’s Super Bowl and ran an ad with celebrity comedian Larry David from HBO’s “Curb Your Enthusiasm”.
In November, FTX went into bankruptcy wiping out billions of dollars of investor money. FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried is facing multiple federal charges related to defrauding investors that could land him in prison for decades. His trial is tentatively scheduled to begin this year.
David and several other celebrity endorsers of FTX, including sports stars Tom Brady and Steph Curry, have been named in a lawsuit alleging that their position left them culpable for promoting the firm’s failed business model. Appointed.
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FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried arrives at Manhattan Federal Court on February 9, 2023 in New York City.
Another firm that ran a high-profile ad during last year’s Super Bowl, Crypto.com, announced in January that it would lay off 20% of its workforce through the end of 2022 on top of other announced cuts. The company’s CEO blamed “the confluence of negative economic growth” and cited the impact of the FTX collapse on the crypto space as a key factor.
A year ago, Crypto.com ran a Super Bowl ad in which basketball star LeBron James spoke to his 18-year-old self in 2003 about technological advances in the coming decades. Although he did not discuss crypto, the Crypto.com logo and its marketing slogan – “Fortune Favors the Brave” – appeared at the end.
Actor Matt Damon previously appeared in a Crypto.com ad with the slogan “Fortune favors the brave”, which was later used by the satirical TV show “South Park” to lampoon the movie star and other celebrity endorsers of crypto firms Was.
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Coinbase ran an ad during last year’s Super Bowl that featured a floating QR code in a promotion the company was giving away millions of dollars. Marketing experts named it one of the most successful sports commercials because it surprised viewers and stood out, although many viewers found it confusing.
Over the past year, Coinbase shares have fallen by more than 70% and the company had to lay off about 20% of its workforce amid the “crypto winter”. The company finds itself under the regulatory microscope as a result of a recent $100 million settlement with the state of New York for insufficient scrutiny of users setting up accounts and an ongoing Securities and Exchange Commission investigation into the crypto practice of “staking”. .
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Source: finance.yahoo.com