All in-game ads for the upcoming Super Bowl LVII have been sold out ahead of Sunday’s game between the Philadelphia Eagles and the Kansas City Chiefs, but there has been a shakeup since last year’s advertising bonanza — no crypto ads will be shown during the big game after last year’s championship game featured ads from FTX, Coinbase, Crypto.com, and eToro.
AP News reports that Fox has announced that all of the in-game ads for Super Bowl LVII have been taken, making it the most sought-after ticket for advertisers. This coming Sunday will see the highly anticipated game between the Philadelphia Eagles and the Kansas City Chiefs, which is expected to draw 100 million viewers.
Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong (TechCrunch/Flickr)
Matt Damon was mocked for his Crypto.com ad (YouTube / Crypto.com)
The ads will feature the mix of consumer companies sports fans are used to hearing from, including Anheuser-Busch, which has purchased the longest overall ad time this year. But in a significant departure from last year’s Super Bowl, there will not be a single ad related to cryptocurrency. Mark Evans, executive vice president of ad sales for Fox Sports, explains: “There’s zero representation in that category on the day at all.”
Four cryptocurrency companies ran advertisements during the game last year: FTX, Coinbase, Crypto.com, and eToro. FTX has collapsed in bankruptcy as disgraced CEO and Democrat super donor Sam Bankman-Fried awaits trial on multiple fraud charges. The Company has asked lawmakers to return donations from SBF and other FTX insiders, as that money was allegedly client investments not intended for political donation.
Breitbart News reported in June that many of the crypto firms who spent big on Super Bowl ads were forced to lay off employees in the months following the game.
Coinbase, the cryptocurrency exchange that spent millions of dollars on Super Bowl ads just months ago, is now laying off thousands of employees as cryptocurrency prices crash yet again. Coinbase isn’t alone in this reversal of fortune — Crypto.com is laying off staff just months after its widely mocked Super Bowl ad starring Matt Damon.
Futurism reports that Coinbase is laying off close to a fifth of its entire workforce following a collapse in stock and crypto prices. The exchange plans to cut 18 percent of its full-time positions, according to an email sent to employees. The company has around 5,000 full-time workers, which will be reduced by approximately 1,100 following the layoffs. Crypto.com, another Super Bowl advertiser, is reportedly laying off five percent of its workforce.
In February, Coinbase ran an ad during the Super Bowl. The ad, named WAGMI (“We’re All Going to Make It”) contained a scannable QR code that bounced around the screen. Scanning the QR code brought users to a page where Coinbase offered $15 in Bitcoin for signing up and a chance to enter a contes.
The webpage crashed immediately due to the increased traffic from the ad. Of course, people immediately began to point out that Coinbase paid millions of dollars to run an ad during the Super Bowl for a website that couldn’t handle the sudden increase in users.
Breitbart News will continue to follow the headwinds faced in crypto in the wake of the FTX collapse.
Lucas Nolan is a reporter for Breitbart News covering issues of free speech and online censorship. Follow him on Twitter @LucasNolan