Coinbase Returns to Super Bowl With Lo-Fi Karaoke Ad

Four years after its viral QR code advertisement, crypto exchange Coinbase has returned to the Super Bowl, this time betting on a Backstreet Boys karaoke-inspired ad. 

Coinbase’s one-minute TV spot during the most-watched sporting event in the US mainly featured text animation flashing the lyrics to the Backstreet Boys’ 1997 hit “Everybody (Backstreet’s Back).”

Coinbase marketing chief Catherine Ferdon said in a statement that the ad aimed to “bring people together for a shared experience that highlights how the crypto community has grown.”

It’s Coinbase’s first Super Bowl advert spot since 2022, when it debuted a 60-second commercial that includes a color-changing QR code that bounced across the display screen, like a DVD screensaver. 

The QR code advert directed to a hyperlink providing $15 in Bitcoin (BTC) for many who signed up to Coinbase, which was so fashionable that it crashed the website and reportedly noticed 20 million hits in a single minute.

Newest advert divides, however which means it labored, says Coinbase

Coinbase’s newest Super Bowl advert drew divided opinions on-line, with some X customers saying the industrial elicited jeers amid a market crash and crypto’s ties to the Trump administration. In distinction, others praised it for its simplicity and memorability.

“In the event you’re speaking about it, it labored,” Coinbase posted to X in response to a consumer who mentioned the corporate’s advert was “horrible.”

Others on-line additionally piled onto the advert, with one X consumer posting “the room I’m in ERUPTED in boos once we came upon it was a Coinbase advert,” whereas Axios reporter Andrew Solender said a room he was in “burst into groans and shouts of ‘fuck you’” after the advert aired.

Associated: UK bans Coinbase ads that ‘trivialized’ crypto risks: Report

Ethereum Basis engineer Chase Wright said that “half of the folks on the celebration I used to be at have been singing alongside and laughed when it was Coinbase.” In distinction, one other X consumer said it was “lowkey genius,” as those that watched it “will 100% keep in mind Coinbase in the event that they ever need to purchase crypto.”