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The Almighty Buck Advertising The Media

This Year's Super Bowl Broadcast May Seem 'Crypto-Happy'. But the NFL Isn't (msn.com) 65

Posted by EditorDavid from the not-playing-ball dept.
During today's telecast of the Super Bowl, 100 million Americans will see at least three commercials promoting cryptocurrency, reports the Washington Post, "and though Tom Brady may be gone from the game, he hovers over it, hawking crypto exchange FTX."

"Yet the hype belies a more complicated relationship. Unlike the National Basketball Association, the National Football League, the country's most popular sports league, has essentially prohibited its teams from using crypto." It's a microcosm of the broader cultural battle between those touting the currency as the shiny future and others warning of its dangers.... [T]he headlines often come with a negative tint. New York Times columnist and economist Paul Krugman warned last month about crypto's parallels to the subprime mortgage crisis. This week, the FBI arrested a New York couple for allegedly conspiring to launder billions in crypto. That can scare the large corporate entities of professional sports, particularly the NFL, whose love of fresh revenue sources is matched only by its fear of public relations disasters.... In September, a memo revealed by the Athletic showed the league's restrictive attitude toward crypto... "Clubs are prohibited from selling, or otherwise allowing within club controlled media, advertisements for specific cryptocurrencies, initial coin offerings, other cryptocurrency sales or any other media category as it relates to blockchain, digital asset or as blockchain company, except as outlined in this policy," it said.

The NFL has made some forays into NFTs, or non-fungible tokens, the digitally watermarked tools that are crypto's less controversial cousin, signing up for a partnership with Ticketmaster for NFTs of Super Bowl tickets and an NFT video highlight program with Dapper Labs, one of the leaders in the space. And of course the Super Bowl is taking place at SoFi Stadium, named for the digitally minded financial firm. But sponsorships from crypto exchanges remain off-limits, and the idea of the NFL creating a cryptocurrency, which some enthusiasts have advocated, is the stuff of fantasy. Even the Super Bowl commercials going for as much as $7 million for 30 seconds — which the league authorizes — include only exchanges such as FTX and not currencies themselves....

The NFL has formed an internal working group to study the regulatory, brand and other consequences of partnering with crypto companies but has set no timetable for when its rules could be revised. Renie Anderson, the NFL's chief revenue officer, said the league is moving slowly by design. "We don't want to put everything and the kitchen sink into this," she said by phone from the site of Super Bowl events in Los Angeles. "We don't know where a lot of this is going, so what we're trying to do is testing and learning so we can understand." She cited regulatory and market forces that are still coming into focus. (The Treasury Department and other federal agencies have been ramping up their efforts to create a regulatory framework for crypto, but there remains a degree of murkiness around what the future limits might be.) The NFL, Anderson said, would rather act after there's clarity. "It's hard to unwind something like a naming rights deal," she said, "and I'd rather not have to undo opportunities two years later because there are rules against advertising or marketing certain things."

National Basketball Association executives, however, say they see a major opportunity right now.
The article also points out that one football star even says he converted his $750,000 salary to Bitcoin. Though one sports analyst calculates that if the purchase was made on November 12th, after federal and state taxes it's now worth about $35,000.
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This Year's Super Bowl Broadcast May Seem 'Crypto-Happy'. But the NFL Isn't More

This Year's Super Bowl Broadcast May Seem 'Crypto-Happy'. But the NFL Isn't

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  • make you rich! I saw it on the super bowl!

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by Rei ( 128717 )

      Cryptocurrencies are money, not pyramid schemes. That's why there were multiple FOMO ads pumping them on the Superbowl. Just like all those FOMO Superbowl ads pushing you to buy yen, yuan and euros, which I assume exist without having ever watched a Superbowl myself.

  • Trade cash for some 1's and 0's! (Score:3)

    by Thantik ( 1207112 ) on Sunday February 13, 2022 @09:49PM (#62265077)
    I've got like 100 Kohl's Bucks on me, anyone want to buy it for $10k USD? That's basically crypto in a nutshell. Except my example might actually be more useful.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

      What sets crypto scams apart is how much money there is behind them. Some of them have been taking out ads in Times Square and now at the Superbowl. That gives you an idea of how profitable those scams are.

    • That's basically crypto in a nutshell.

      No, Kohl's cash, Disney Dollars and any other retail scrip is at least backed by the company that issued it.

      Cryptocurrency is more like investing in a company that has no assets, and consists entirely of gig workers producing the only product the company makes: stock in itself (and the gig workers get paid in - you guessed it - a percentage of the stock they've helped make).

  • Game just ended (Score:4, Informative)

    by 93 Escort Wagon ( 326346 ) on Sunday February 13, 2022 @10:04PM (#62265107)

    Game was actually pretty good.

    The commercials pretty uniformly sucked.

    I don't actually remember the crypto ads - maybe I was in the can.

    • So you also missed Snoop Doge at half time?

      • Man, what was that all about? The NFL / NBC / whoever apparently decides they want to be edgy, and they somehow come to the conclusion that the best way to do that is to run a bunch of old people out there to do rap and hip-hop?! Come on, Mary J Blige was the "young" one... and she's 50!

        • halftime show was done for FREE .. oh, Im sorry, for Exposure!

          https://www.femalefirst.co.uk/... [femalefirst.co.uk]

          "The 'Family Affair' hitmaker will take to the stage during the NFL showpiece game on Sunday (13.02.22) alongside the likes of Dr. Dre, Eminem, Snoop Dogg and Kendrick Lamar and although over 100 million people are expected to tune in to watch, she has confirmed none of the artists receive a fee for the prestigious gig, but she knows long term the appearance will generate a lot of opportunities."

        • Come on, Mary J Blige was the "young" one... and she's 50!

          Marshall Mathers is 49. You're not wrong though, dude is too old to be rapping about anything other than picking up his prescription from Walgreens.

          • Marshall Mathers is 49. You're not wrong though, dude is too old to be rapping about anything other than picking up his prescription from Walgreens.

            That actually would've been awesome.

        • Kendrick Lamar was the young one at 34. Were you bitching also that Prince was too old for Superbowl, or Coldplay, Lady Gaga, and Old Lady Madonna?

          • Prince transcends age. Well, he did anyway.

            I actually forgot about Kendrick Lamar - I was distracted waiting for one of the old guys to trip and bust a hip.

    • One I've seen before makes me think it's a crypto ad every time, but it's for Salesforce. Otherwise I missed the crypto ads too.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by antdude ( 79039 )

      SB's TV ads. are getting worse each year. :(

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Zak3056 ( 69287 )

        The Alexa ad actually made me laugh out loud. "Setting a reminder to fake your own death" will definitely stick with me.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by antdude ( 79039 )

          I missed that. I wonder what happened with real Alexa when they heard it.

          • I missed that. I wonder what happened with real Alexa when they heard it.

            Ever since that one South Park episode, Amazon has been pretty proactive about making sure Alexa won't add big hairy balls to your shopping list when someone on TV asks.

    • I liked the Arnold Schwarzenegger as Zeus one - and it looks like a nice electric BMW. (Not ridiculous like the i3)

      By far that was my biggest takeaway from the ads - this was the year that electric cars arrived. For that matter I liked the Jason Bateman one also - that was brutal on the Smart Car.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by DarkOx ( 621550 )

      I am surprised how positive the over all reaction to the commercials has been. The 'crypto' ads were mostly uninspired and stupid! A Bouncing QR code really, you have a super powerful full motion AV medium and you run an ad that would lose basically nothing translated to a bus bench...

      Nostalgia and fan service always sells, but the dialog was without punch. Sure it was fun to see Dr.Evil again but gee wiz you got Mike Myers and Seth Green and the best you can do is a poor execution of one of the movies mi

      • A Bouncing QR code really, you have a super powerful full motion AV medium and you run an ad that would lose basically nothing translated to a bus bench...

        Do you know how many millions of people were watching closely to see if that QR code ever hit the corner?

  • I remember seeing one (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Snotnose ( 212196 ) on Sunday February 13, 2022 @10:24PM (#62265139)
    The game was good, the commercials sucked. The only one I remember is the guy with the cardboard Pringles tube on his hand and all I could think was "dude. A bowie knife. A chef's knife. A sink full of hot water. Maybe take a shower once in 40 years.".

    The game ended for me 20 minutes ago and, if that Pringles commercial is the only one I remember then, well, I guess well played Pringles. Too bad I don't buy potato chips.

  • So he converted the taxes they withheld? (Score:3)

    by h33t l4x0r ( 4107715 ) on Sunday February 13, 2022 @10:37PM (#62265147)
    I don't see how he could have done that. Interesting math though.

  • The broadcast was saturation happy. (Score:3)

    by Fly Swatter ( 30498 ) on Sunday February 13, 2022 @10:56PM (#62265179) Homepage
    Don't care about crypto but one thing that stood out were the glowing uniforms. I guess they wanted it to feel like a video game.

  • Controversial (Score:5, Insightful)

    by phantomfive ( 622387 ) on Sunday February 13, 2022 @10:58PM (#62265181) Journal

    NFTs, or non-fungible tokens, the digitally watermarked tools that are crypto's less controversial cousin,

    If NFTs are less controversial than coins, then it's because no one wants them because they are a complete scam.

  • I don't think I've ever watched the Superbowl. Just not my thing. However, I have often enjoyed the ads, sometimes very much! This year's crop, though....blah.
    The only one I genuinely liked was the Alexa mind-reading commercial, though I did enjoy the Fast and the Furious bit and chuckled a bit at one or two others.
    Honestly, I can barely remember them, other than the ones I mentioned above.

    • I don't live in the US, and so don't get Superbowl ads. Probably over a decade ago I was interested enough in the phenomenon to download them. They did not seem any different to regular ads.

      • Re: (Score:1)

        by DarkOx ( 621550 )

        They are not different than regular ads and most of them with the exception of the really long ones will run in ordinary tv spots for the next several weeks or more.

        The only 'exceptional' thing about them is Super Bowl ad time is probably the most expensive of all TV advertising. So once you decide to run and ad in the Super Bowl two things are true 1) You better make some serious impressions, or you won't see a positiive ROI and 2) The time is so expensive that adding a zero onto the end of the usual prod

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by tlhIngan ( 30335 )

        I don't live in the US, and so don't get Superbowl ads.

        In Canada, for maybe a couple of years tops, they prohibited "simsubbing" of the Superbowl. (Simsub is the substitution of a channel's programming with that of a local Canadian channel, so if FOX and CTV aired the same program at the same time, the FOX feed would be replaced with the CTV feed for that time period).

        Because lots of people complained, they carved out a special exception for the Superbowl so Canadians can view the US ads (without needing a

  • The crypto ads were a advertisement for horrible reasoning. "Some inventions were good in the past, therefore this invention is good." Or, "trust yourself to invest in crypto, just like LeBron trusted himself to skip college and go straight into the pro's."

    Even leaving crypto completely aside, telling kids to skip realistic opportunities in the hopes of being the next LeBron James is just a horrible message for 99.9999% of the population.

    • Re:Cringeworthy (Score:4, Interesting)

      by fermion ( 181285 ) on Monday February 14, 2022 @01:13AM (#62265321) Homepage Journal
      How is that different from drink this beer and you will get dates. The Super Bowl works like crypto. As long as people believe it is of value. The ads are worth the money because it builds brands. The ads are reported online for clickbait, more brand awareness as long as you have a few million to burn to build a brand, and you believe like pets.com it is money well spent. The only companies receiving real value are those like AB InBev where they get access to kids who will be brainwashed into thinking Budweiser is the beer to get as soon as they are able.
      • It is different. Beer is ubiquitous enough that nobody really believes buying one brand of beer over another will get you a date with a hot woman. And so what if you do think Budweiser does everything the commercials tell you? You're out $10, one hot date, and have to drink a six-pack of crappy beer. Being stuck with a six-pack of Budweiser is probably the worst part of this scenario.

        On the other hand, people will dump real money into cryptos thinking its a good investment and it'll get them rich. M

    • Wrong sport.

  • The commercials reminded me of the 2000 Superbowl. [wikipedia.org] So many tech companies. A bouncing QR code for an NFT company. The E-trade baby even made a comeback.
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