Advertisements for the biggest sporting event of the year have sold out and not one of them will be for a crypto company.
The Associated Press reported that unlike last year’s “Crypto Bowl,” which featured ads from four crypto companies, Coinbase eToro, Crypto.com and FTX, next Sunday’s game between the Philadelphia Eagles and the Kansas City Chiefs will have no crypto representation.
Partly to blame for the lack of crypto ads at Super Bowl LVII lies one of the crypto companies that advertised last year: FTX.
Although once one of the world’s largest crypto exchanges – which was worth $32 billion at its peak – the company filed for bankruptcy last year and its former CEO and founder Sam Bankman-Fried has been accused of fraud and conspiracy. I went.
Mark Evans, executive vice president of advertising sales for Fox Sports, which will stream the game, told the AP that two crypto companies already had ads secured and the other two were “on the one-yard line” when FTX exploded. The news broke. Those deals were later scrapped.
Crypto’s fall from grace is reminiscent of the dot-com Super Bowl in 2000. During that game, 17 of the 51 commercials were for Internet companies, but just a year later only one was advertised during the big game: E*Trade.
The only company in the crypto industry returning to the Super Bowl this year will be in Canada, not the United States. Crypto exchange Bitbuy is set to air a 60-second spot that will air during the Canadian broadcast.
While last year BitBuy’s Super Bowl ad focused on “missed opportunities,” this year the company’s focus will be on the theme of “trust” after a tumultuous year for the industry. The spot will feature NBA 2022 Rookie of the Year, Scotty Barnes.
The downturn in the crypto space last year, along with concerns from companies about an impending recession, also affected Fox’s ability to sell crypto ads. Evans told the AP that although 90% of the spots, some of which went for more than $7 million per 30-second, were sold by the end of last summer, it was a grind to offload the rest.
This year the break between the Super Bowl will also include commercials for Anheuser-Busch, Doritos, and M&Ms, as well as some movie studios and streaming services.
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