Coinbase bets on Backstreet Boys nostalgia in return to Super Bowl

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 was mostly text animation that flashed 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 ad spot at the Super Bowl since 2022, when it debuted with a 60-second commercial featuring a color-changing QR code that bounced around the screen similar to a DVD screensaver.

The QR code ad directed to a link offering $15 in Bitcoin (BTC) for those who signed up to Coinbase, which was so popular that it crashed the website and reportedly saw 20 million hits in one minute.

Latest ad divides, but that means it worked, says Coinbase

Coinbase’s latest Super Bowl ad garnered divided opinions online, with some X users saying the commercial elicited jeers as crypto has lost its lustre amid a market crash and its ties to the Trump administration, while others praised it for being simple and memorable.

“If you’re talking about it, it worked,” Coinbase posted to X in response to a user who said the company’s ad was “terrible.”

Others online also piled onto the ad, with one X user posting “the room I’m in ERUPTED in boos when we found out it was a Coinbase ad,” while Axios reporter Andrew Solender said a room he was in “burst into groans and shouts of ‘fuck you’” after the ad aired.

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

Ethereum Foundation engineer Chase Wright said that “half of the people at the party I was at were singing along and laughed when it was Coinbase,” while another X user said it was “lowkey genius,” as those who watched it “will 100% remember Coinbase if they ever want to buy crypto.”

Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong defended the ad on X, arguing that “most people half-watch commercials (buzzed, in a loud room, with lots of people). It takes something unique to break through.”

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