Description

A Super Bowl ad featuring Larry David had never before been seen. This wasn’t like the iPhone where we keep getting “leaked” hints and teasers as to what’s about to drop. Instead, cryptocurrency exchange FTX went old school and planned to surprise spectators with the renowned comedian during the actual game.

The Seinfeld and Curb Your Enthusiasm creator was depicted in the advertisement, “Don’t Miss Out on Crypto,” as a sceptic of such historical innovations like the wheel, the fork, the toilet, democracy, the light bulb, the dishwasher, the Sony Walkman, and, of course, FTX.

The commercial helped FTX become one of the Super Bowl’s most-retweeted brands and was named “Most Comical” by USA Today’s Ad Meter.

A little over three months before this advertisement ran, Bitcoin would reach its peak value. Since then, it has been slowly declining. The collapse of the Terra/Luna currency and the insolvency of the cryptocurrency hedge firm Three Arrows, among other things, have made 2022 a difficult year for the sector. Sam Bankman-Fried, the founder and CEO of FTX, resigned after a string of controversies, and the business filed for bankruptcy. Bring on the jokes: Larry was correct.

There are many concerns underlying the sudden rise and collapse of FTX, but one is how, for at least the past year, the majority of the brand’s advertising—and the majority of brands associated to cryptocurrencies—have leveraged fame and hype to paint cryptocurrency investment as a historically wise choice.

Assets

Credits

Client FTX Agency dentsuMB Menno Kluin, chief creative officer; Jason Stefanik, executive creative director; Andrew Hunter, creative director; Daniel Freeda, sr. copywriter; Christian Maine De Biran, sr. art director; Brian Gartside, group design director; Sophia del Plato, sr. graphic designer; Luis Valencia, Emily Thomas, graphic designers; Ed Zazzera, EVP, integrated production; Stacy Kay, Carissa Ranelycke, SVPs, integrated production; Andrea Rastogi, executive producer, integrated; Adrienne Darnell, sr. producer, integrated production; Jerry Krenach, SVP, global music production; Stephen Stallings, sr. music producer; Kaylyn Keane, music licensing producer; Jamie Shuttleworth, chief strategy officer; Ana Conroy, SVP, integrated strategy; Kathryn Saulitis, sr. strategist. Cultural Fluency Committee Kai Deveraux Lawson, SVP, diversity, equity & inclusion; Ross Patton, producer, integrate dproduction; Matias Martty, executive creative director.Production CompanyPartizan Jeff Schaffer, director; Lisa Tauscher, managing director/exec producer; Mike Lobikis, exec producer/head of sales; Raffi Adlan, producer; Ani Mikirdichian, head of production; Darren Lew, DP; Jeffrey Beecroft, production designer; Christina Mongini, costume designer; Yumi Mizui, Japanese translator. Editorial Mackcut Ian Mackenzie, editor; Cooper McLane, assistant editor; Gina Pagano, exec producer. Audio Heard City Keith Reynaud, mixer; Liana Rosenberg, sr. producer. Color Company 3 Kath Raisch, colorist; Cassidy Conway, producer. VFX Method Bennett Lieber, exec producer; Kristin Engdahl, supervising VFX producer; Olivia Vitagliano, VFX coordinator; Warren Paleos, Rob Walker, creative directors; Jesse Bradstreet, on-set VFX supervisor; Alex Cheparev, sr CG supervisor; Kyle Andal, Gerard Andal, compositing supervisors; Chihcheng Peng, lead Flame artist; Adam Rosenzweig, Orges Kokoshari, modelers; Cecilia Nguyen, 3D animator; Alejandro Echeverry, FX artist; Daniel Bayona, Celeste Caliri, digital matte painter; Claire Yawen Chang, Da Kim, lighters; Jeric Pimentel, compositing lead; Rodrigo DeLaParra, compositor; Andrew Paulus, designer; Michael DeCaprio, VFX artist. (Toolbox: Maya, Houdini, Mari, Nuke, Flame) MusicJSM Joel Simon, CEO/CCO/composer; Jeff Fiorello, VP/exec producer; Seamus Kilmartin, composer; Norm Felker, Andrew Manning, sr. producers; Sharon Cha, producer. GraphicsDIA