Mother’s ad for crypto currency brand Coinbase was a send-up of the British stiff upper lip, a musical representation of our ability to keep calm and carry on, even when the country is breaking around us. Our ability to pretend that “everything’s just fine” means that we are refuse to try anything new around our finances, like crypto for instance.
The Advertising Standards Authority has banned the ad for not meeting its social responsibility criteria after 35 complaints that it trivialised the risks associated with the product. Coinbase mounted a spirited defence, saying was that it was “easily understood by consumers” and was meant to “provoke discussion about the state of the financial system” rather than be a call to action.
For some, crypto is the future of finance and a no-brainer investment, but the currency has its ups and downs and – rightly or wrongly – is often associated with conspiracy theorists and money laundering, favoured by people who are trying to bring down the system.
Maybe we should all be investing in crypto, but it seems that Brits (35 of them, anyway) are not ready to apply a sense of humour to either the currency or the cost of living crisis. Coinbase’s line is “If everything’s fine, don’t change anthing”, but it makes sense that when everything isn’t just fine, making change is scarier than ever.
