Super Bowl 2022: QR Code Coinbase Ad Creates Spirited Discussion on Social Media

February 13, 2022, 7:24pm

One of the first spots during Super Bowl LVI to really confuse viewers at home was courtesy of Coinbase, which runs a cryptocurrency exchange platform. The bizarre commercial showed a simple QR code that bounced around the screen in front of a blank backdrop while the computerized melody of “Money (That’s What I Want)” played. In the end, the company’s logo appeared on a blue screen, with the URL drops.coinbase.com.

Once people go to that website, they can sign up for Coinbase and get $15 in free bitcoin. The company is also running a contest to win up to $3 million in prizes. If you’re already a member, you can still enter the contest.

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Considering the cost of a commercial this year, it was shocking to see how basic this spot looked. Last week, NBC told the Wall Street Journal that multiple ad spots were sold at $7 million for just 30 seconds of air time. Many of the companies jockeying for interest are related to cryptocurrency, which has reminded many of the Dot-Com Boom era commercials. “If you do that right, everyone’s smiling or laughing, or at least entertained at what you’re putting on during the game, but there’ll be a smaller subset of that audience that definitely researches more, goes online and figures it out,” Lee Newman, chief executive of the Interpublic Group of Cos. advertising agency MullenLowe U.S., told the Journal of the cryptocurrency companies hoping to become household names. Scroll on for a look at the reactions to the Coinbase spot.